# Odd Euphemisms **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 9, 2021, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745 "2021-12-09T01:30:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2021, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/101 "2021-12-30T01:01:38Z")
During dinner?đŸ˜Č ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2021, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/102 "2021-12-30T01:02:56Z")
Hey, man, you’re the one who said it. And I’m not here to judge. Although you might want to tip the bathroom attendant a little extra once your done. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2021, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/103 "2021-12-30T06:11:40Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > “bottom-burp”. More genteel: “trouser cough”. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/104 "2021-12-31T00:18:52Z")
I think Mark Twain used the term “fundamental sigh”. Which is based on the euphemistic “fundament” = ass. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2021, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/105 "2021-12-31T00:22:12Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > More genteel: “trouser cough”. Less genteel: “Hey, did you fart in my pants?” ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/106 "2025-02-17T15:25:11Z")
Saw a new one today. I know “handicapped” or “disabled” has euphemismed into “differently abled”, but here’s a Congresswoman (or Congressperson?) Euphemizing into “uniquely abled”. > **['I was wrong': Dem lawmaker makes 'admission to MAGA' about 'immigrants...](https://www.rawstory.com/jasmine-crockett-wrong-maga-musk/)** > > Texas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett on Sunday made what she called an "admission to MAGA" about immigrants taking jobs. > > Crockett, a Democratic lawmaker who has taken aim at Donald Trump as well as Marjorie Taylor Greene, took to X over the weekend... ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/107 "2025-02-17T15:36:03Z")
We used to make fun of this stuff 35 or more years ago, in the non-profit where I was doing volunteer work around HIV/AIDS. My favorite satiric term was “differently othered.” ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/108 "2025-02-17T18:14:51Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > [@Moriarty](#): > > > > Vomiting into a toilet: talking to Ralph on the big white phone. > > Hah, that’s funny, I didn’t know that idiom. There’s an equivalent expression in German: “mit Kurt und Jörg telefonieren”, “having a call with Kurt and Jörg”. I’m sure it’s a tragic story and doesn’t deserve to be made fun of, but I notice one of the other MPSIMS threads listed at the bottom of this one refers to the murder of one “Ralph Yarl”. “Can you identify this badly decomposed body?” “Ralph! Yarl!” ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/109 "2025-02-17T18:45:24Z")
“Uniquely abled” to me sounds like a child who can invert heir ears, or has their feet pointing backwards. Although I suppose in the latter case they would need special accommodations. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/110 "2025-02-18T12:36:30Z")
One from the UK that I was reminded of recently - maybe on its way out now, but “a guest of Her/His Majesty” = in prison ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/111 "2025-02-19T03:13:47Z")
A Yank variant of that is “guest of the State”. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/112 "2025-02-19T03:18:36Z")
A long time ago in my high school, the phrase “I paid the Queen’s breakfast” meant you’d got a speeding ticket. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/113 "2025-02-19T11:15:52Z")
And “taking the Queen’s shilling” means joining the army. (Does it mean voluntarily enlisting, or getting drafted?) ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/114 "2025-02-19T12:34:53Z")
Since, in the UK parliament, MPs are not allowed to lie, or to accuse another MP of lying, there are some ingenious euphenisms to get around the rule. _‘economical with the truth’, ‘inadvertently misleading Parliament’_ ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/115 "2025-02-19T15:42:37Z")
One of my great-uncles spent some time in prison. There was a family story that he was “away at college”. This was particularly amusing when I started college. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2025, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/116 "2025-02-19T15:54:28Z")
Sort of like the way a young unmarried woman would “visit relatives in the countryside”. For nine months. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2025, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/117 "2025-02-20T11:13:54Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > And “taking the Queen’s shilling” means joining the army. (Does it mean voluntarily enlisting, or getting drafted?) Voluntary enlistment. Legend has it that canny recruiting sergeants would make sure there was a shilling in the mug of beer they were offering an innocent yokel, so that they could say he’d ‘taken the shilling’ - and that’s why posh pewter mugs have a glass bottom (so that you see the shilling before it’s too late). ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2025, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/118 "2025-02-20T11:18:48Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > One of my great-uncles spent some time in prison. There was a family story that he was “away at college”. > > This was particularly amusing when I started college. That reminds me that in [Lea Ypi’s memoir of life in Communist Albania](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_(Ypi_book)) her family frequently refers to people’s time “at university”, and how long it took her to realise that meant imprisonment for various political faults ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2025, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/119 "2025-02-20T11:37:18Z")
“Physics package” for “nuclear bomb” is an old one that came up recently. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2025, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745/120 "2025-02-22T19:36:19Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > One of my great-uncles spent some time in prison. There was a family story that he was “away at college”. When I was a teenager with a summer job, I worked with a guy who was living in a halfway house, before eventually getting to live on his own. He always referred to his time incarcerated for drug dealing as being “away at camp”. If pressed, he’d say it was a state run camp. Always a camp. Never a prison. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-euphemisms/955745.md?page=5)