Euphemisms and Dysphemisms

A pleasantly plump man’s best friend and a gargantuan flee bag. Both mean the same thing, a fat dog, but invoke two completely different feelings. By describing things in a certain way, we are also conveying our opinion on the specific topic. In an argument, euphemisms can be used to be polite or to make the issue seem more pleasant to encourage persuasion on their argument. Dysphemisms are used to demonstrate the negative opinions on something and make it seem worse than it is. In the military, the soldiers wouldn’t describe killing other soldiers as murder; they would refer to it as neutralizing the opponent. For hippies, they would probably opt to use a dysphemism such as, cold-blooded murder, to describe the happenings on a battlefield. We use euphemisms to avoid insulting somebody; instead of using the word ‘retarded’ we would say someone has a ‘mental illness’. Perhaps we build these euphemisms surrounding the stigmas in our society to make ourselves feel more comfortable when speaking of them. We seem to even make up words to make awkward topics much easier to speak of; topics like sex, death and pooh, to be blunt.

Euphemisms first began in old Greece. They believed that by replacing religious taboo words with euphemisms they would avoid fatal consequences. It was almost like magical thinking, and soon euphemisms became popular in disguising less socially accepted words. And soon became a political tool.

It is especially important in health care to avoid euphemisms. An example would be using a procedure with a much more confusing scientific name, rather than informing the patient of a less expensive procedure with a much more simple name. Sure a doctor can advertise, but it would be breaching the rules of informed consent by giving a fancier name to an expensive treatment, rather than using the normal name for a less costly one. The patient doesn’t know exactly what they are getting with the procedure with a euphemism.

There comes a point when our euphemisms and dysphemisms become lies, like “making murder respectable”.