I hope they have a Department of Redundancy Department to handle all the paperwork. 
Or Union instead of mobbed up thugs.
- Killing
First, the hunting euphemisms: harvesting, taking, culling, thinning. It’s killing, so let’s just call it that. Lots of people do it. My late husband was a competent, enthusiastic, responsible hunter, and I’m not anti-hunting. If you have the balls and the stomach to gut a warm, bleeding animal whose life you just took for sport, not necessity, then at least have the balls and the stomach to use the Real Word to describe the act
Meh, Biologist use thinning the heard, A mountain Lion culls the herd, Pilgrims harvested, its Noreaster slang. Same applies to fish, birds?
Where I’m from, we call them ‘washrooms’. At least people do wash in them.
Well some do, some don’t
Along similar lines, how did “exotic” come to mean “erotic”, as in “erotic dance”? To me, good examples of exotic dance would be the Scottish sword dance or the Javanese Peafowl dance. Or even the Mexican Hat Dance–in short any dance from a cultural tradition that is new to me.
Sometimes I wonder if it all started with some printer or sign painter who mistakenly substituted exotic for erotic. In some fonts and script styles, lower-case ‘r’ and ‘x’ do look quite similar.
“Made redundant” in the UK is a specific type of firing. It means you didn’t do anything wrong, but either your job doesn’t exist any more (due to restructuring, technology or something) or the company is going out of business or significantly sizing down.
It always requires some form of extra pay. This used to be quite a lot of money and some people would be happy to be made redundant, but these days the amounts are a lot smaller. The legal minimum is a week’s pay per year of service, which isn’t a lot.
It doesn’t usually (contrary to what someone else said) mean you can’t look for work in that field for years.
“F-bomb.” The word is FUCK.
My mother-in-law would sometimes describe a woman as having a “cute figure”. I eventually figured out that it meant she had big tits.
I’m not sure whether this is a euphemism, or just flat-out incorrect usage, but I HATE the way corporations use the word “colleague” instead of “employee” or “member of staff”.
Can’t find what you’re looking for? Ask a colleague! says a sign in the supermarket.
What? So if I can’t find the fabric softener, you’re saying I have to go all the way back to work, and ask one of my workmates for help?! Can’t I just ask one of the employees of the supermarket instead?
It also annoys me when people say they “work in retail,” when they mean that they work in a shop.
The entire Wendy’s experience is one big euphemism. You’re actually paying $5 for the performance art of watching them call a greasy square an “Old Fashioned Hamburger,” and potatoes “Quality Natural Cut Fries.” McDonald’s skirts the whole euphemism question by just calling everything McProducts now. I guess there’s no implicit lie about quality if there’s no Platonic ideal of a McChicken to look up to.
Now if you don’t mind I’m going to go drink 32 ounces of corn syrup water.
Huh. That never struck me as odd. What the hell else do you call the room you dine in? To me, “dining room,” doesn’t mean anything fancy.
I have never heard this, ever.
You can’t recall for sure but you just know they were confused? Yeah, that’s believable.
YEAH! Fight the Man! You go boy!
Why aren’t you fighting the Man on this issue Mr. Activist? Next time anyone says restroom tell them, “NO! No you fucking retared it is THE SHITROOM! THE SHITROOM!”
I used to go to Wendy’s with a coupon for the Super Bar. When asked “anything to drink?” I’d reply “water, please.” The cashier would then say into a microphone “super bar, dine-in, courtesy cup.” Courtesy cup? Listen, Wendy’s, I’m the one being courteous by gracing your restaurant with my presence and heavily discounted meal price- quit telling everyone I’m too cheap to buy a drink!!!
It’s the pisser.
I hate it when politicians say something is unacceptable, especially to those of another country. Qualify it to be no-trade unacceptable, or no-diplomatic ties unacceptable, or all-out thermonuclear war unacceptable.
I don’t know about **cwthree’s **mother, but let’s just say that, well, since about age 4 I haven’t had any fevers, and leave it at that.
Full circle thread!
It’s because it’s the room where you lay one down to rest and in which many people have died!
Back in 1987, there was a movement to start calling it the passroom, because so many things are passed in there, such as gas, kidney stones, drugs, STD’s, etc.. but unfortunately the euphemism was too much for some to handle.
These are not euphemisms but specific definitions.
I have to nitpick this one. There are two ways to beat an enemy army:
- kill enough of them that they stop fighting/can’t fight anymore (Kill the Enemy)
- Destroy enough infrastructure and supply sources to starve them of food, fuel and ammunitions. (Neutralize them)
Most often the two are combined, but generally the preferance is option 2 as it saves your own army to not have to fight the enemy directly as often.
The two are exclusive terms and not euphamisms.