Okay, another thread brought this on, but it's one of my pet peeves.

Euphemisms that annoy you.

"Slept with" instead of made love, had sex, f**ked, etc.

<rant>
Don't pollute the innocence of the word "sleep" by inbuing it with a meaning that makes people snigger or raise an unbelieving eyebrow, or makes people feel they have to give an innocent explanation!
</rant>

I have to agree about "sleeping with". It's not what I prefer to say. I always say make love or f**k, depending upon the context.

Well, I think the worst one is "taking the tuna to Tuna Town". I don't like it at all.

Making love is actually one that bothers me, unless you really do love the person. Since I'm dealing mainly with f**k buddies these days I tend to say, I had sex with so-and-so last night. Or I f**ked so-and-so this morning. Everything else sounds weird to me. Unless the sex was so bad you really did sleep with the person.

I believe I mentioned context. I happen to agree that you do not make love to a f**k buddy. You can only make love to a significant other.

Oh, how typical of me. I missed that part. Got distracted by what came before that comma. Maybe you're right about my tag.

Disability-related

A cripple became an invalid, and proceeded through a long sequence of euphemisms, including disabled, handicapped, then disabled again, people with disabilities, differently abled, and physically challenged. In 1991, the National Cristina Foundation offered $50,000 to the person who came up with the most empowering term for people with disabilities.

The winning entry was "people with differing abilities," and is seldom used by researchers, the disabled, or their care providers. Another entry in that contest was "severely euphemized."

Backward, imbecile, moron, and idiot became mentally retarded, which in turn became slow, then mentally handicapped, to mentally disabled, on to mentally challenged, and now developmentally disabled. Modern terms used by health and social care professionals include special needs and learning difficulties, although both of those terms are more general than mentally retarded. This has leaked over into tainting the phrase idiot savant so that the word savant can no longer be used to mean someone profoundly knowledgeable, as it still is in French.

Impotence has become Erectile dysfunction.

Many terms that were once considered acceptable, even in the medical profession, are now considered out-of-date and offensive. These include spastic for a person with cerebral palsy and mongolism (sometimes mongolian idiocy) for Down Syndrome.

Some argue that an unintended consequence of the euphemisms for "crippled", a term which merely describes a physical condition, is that the euphemisms contain a message that subliminally tells the persons so-labeled that they should feel resigned to their fate. Famous Baseball team owner Bill Veeck, who had lost a leg due to an injury incurred during World War II, took notable exception to that viewpoint, writing the following in the last chapter of his 1962 autobiography, Veeck - As in Wreck, titled "I'm not handicapped; I'm crippled":

A cripple cannot coddle himself. Once you coddle yourself, you're admitting you can't do what anybody else can do, and then you're through... You will notice I always use the term 'cripple'. It isn't a word you normally hear, is it? It has become customary, in our euphemistic world, to describe us cripples as 'handicapped'... Webster defines 'handicapped' as 'to place at a disadvantage'. I don't believe I am. I believe I can do anything that anybody else can do that doesn't involve quick sprints, high jumps and a fast buck-and-wing. And so, although I am crippled, I am not handicapped.

In more recent times, Christopher Reeve very publicly adopted a similar attitude, and became a hero to many other paralysis victims, much to the chagrin of what could be called the "physically challenged establishment", some of whom criticized him for characterizing his condition as something that needed to be cured, rather than resigning himself to it. In contrast, it was said of the tireless lobbyist Reeve that, "The man who cannot move has not stopped moving."

Here's two that are related to death that annoy me to no end. I sometimes even make an inappropriate comment:

1. I lost my boyfriend. Did you bother to go looking for him?
2. My sister is gone. Well, when will she be back?

Why can't people just say someone is dead?

Here's two that are related to death that annoy me to no end. I sometimes even make an inappropriate comment:

1. I lost my boyfriend. Did you bother to go looking for him?
2. My sister is gone. Well, when will she be back?

Why can't people just say someone is dead?

I actually prefer "slept with" to f*ck or make love. F*ck sounds too vulgar for my tastes, and "making love" makes me want to gag. I suppose "had sex with" would work, though it's sort of blunt. Actually sleeping with someone would come out as "I slept next to so-and-so last night" for me.

/me high-fives Gary!

My usual response to "I lost my boyfriend" is "That was bloody careless!"

I forgot those but yes, they annoy me no end. Closely followed by the expectation that I should somehow feel sad that someone I never knew has popped their clogs

does 'going out' annoy anyone?

Like...

I'm going out with this boy.

or

Would you like to go out with me?

or

Do you know that he is going around with that guy??

No offense to Gary and Tris - and I admit most of the euphemisms for death are a bit silly - but if someone is conveying the news that their loved one has died, I don't think it's appropriate to make fun of the way in which they do it.

Sex and other activities are acceptable targets, but I think something as sad as a death ought to be treated with more compassion.


Actually, to me those are pretty much true in the standard, literal sense. To me "going out" implies that the person is leaving their home - literally going out - and usually also indicates that they'll be doing some sort of activity such as a movie, dinner, a club, shopping perhaps, anything like that. So really if you're "going out with someone" you probably are literally going out with them. I mean you're going out and doing activities together.

I even always say I'm going to "go out" with my friends. We do. When I say that we don't sit around at home we go out and do something together. Conversely, on movie or game nights in which we do stay in, I wouldn't say I'd "gone out with them".

Anyway, to mean it's not a euphemism at all but something that's literally true.

'going out' is an euphemism for dating (at least here in India it is... )

well, I agree... but when someone wants to say---> "He/She is dating him/her" they usually use the word 'go out' even if they are not 'going out' in the literal sense....

No offense to Gary and Tris - and I admit most of the euphemisms for death are a bit silly - but if someone is conveying the news that their loved one has died, I don't think it's appropriate to make fun of the way in which they do it.

It even irritates me more than the truly ridiculous ones like, "he bought the form", "he kicked the bucket", "he bit the bullet" (actually this one almost makes sense. If he died of a gunshot it seems accurate enough to say "the bullet bit him"). Yep, "he passed" irritates me.

Where I work, when we get notified of the death of a resident, the email or phone call usually states that the resident has "expired".

Sort of like a credit card!

Where I work, when we get notified of the death of a resident, the email or phone call usually states that the resident has "expired".

Where I work, when we get notified of the death of a resident, the email or phone call usually states that the resident has "expired".

Ya, that's not too bad,, were I work, they'll simply make the mention of the patient being "departed"

Departed? Departed to where? Were they on a plane?

I think in that context depart is a euphemism for dying.

You don't read sarcasm well do you? That was sarcasm in it's purest form...

I like how Aussies say, "root."

If only it were like a carton of milk instead...he'd have a few more days left.

It's just, if someone comes up to me with the pick up like, "can I buy you a drink?" instead of a greeting I just accept the drink then walk away.. lol.

Your sense of humor never fails to leave me !!!

Here is the one I hate the most: "We're going to put our pet to sleep."

I like sleep. I'm quite sure I would not like being poisoned/shot/drowned/etc. I hate the way people can't own up to what they are doing. If you truly believe you are putting the creature out of its misery why not admit to it? Besides, it might confuse your kids. ie. The dog got put to sleep and now he is dead and buried in the yard... and now mom and dad are telling me to quit playing and go to sleep!

Humane euthanasia of animals is nothing of the sort - if they were treated like a human they'd be left to drag on until they died in discomfort and pain. It should be the other way around, we should treat people animalely.

Here is the one I hate the most: "We're going to put our pet to sleep."

Here is the one I hate the most: "We're going to put our pet to sleep."

I like sleep. I'm quite sure I would not like being poisoned/shot/drowned/etc. I hate the way people can't own up to what they are doing. If you truly believe you are putting the creature out of its misery why not admit to it? Besides, it might confuse your kids. ie. The dog got put to sleep and now he is dead and buried in the yard... and now mom and dad are telling me to quit playing and go to sleep!

That gets back to the whole subject of euphemisms for death. You make a good point about putting a pet to sleep and then telling your kids to goto sleep. Yet another reason to avoid euphemisms. Especially for such a serious topic as death.

It's pathetic the way people dance around death. I've lost my grandparents, my best friend and an uncle and everytime some one used an euphemism, it just confused me. I have a habit of snickering at the euphemisms that are used in stories. I don't care how serious the scene is, when there's a euphemism in it, I have to snicker.
And I agree with Garys point and all other points that are connected to his...

Anyway, getting back to the death euphemisms, I have to say I think they are the most ridiculous ones on average.

In fact the original "annoying euphemism" that I was going to list is when people say "he passed". That just irks me like crazy! Conversely "he passed away", is actually my preferred way of saying that someone died. I think it's all well and good to be blunt most of the time, but actually with something like death I rather like this euphemistic way of saying it. I also imagine the person's soul "passing away" from their body. (even if you don't believe in souls or anything, that's just the image I get) "Passed" by itself just drives me crazy though! I do want to say, "Well what did he pass?" Perhaps this is good news, "John passed" "his kidney stone?" "his test?", or maybe it's only moderately bad news, "well, have him circle the block and come back then."

I like how Aussies say, "root."

I'll only do this because Rose and I are friends. You just used a euphemism.