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Euphemisms in your language | ||
Tags: Euphemisms | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7380 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes  12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 25 of 53 11 August 2005 at 12:22am | IP Logged | ||
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Yesterday I heard on french TV some guy in Parliament mention les personnes en situation de handicap (persons in a handicap situation), a euphemised euphemism.
I recalled also a Swiss euphemism to mention that somebody was sent to prison - ils l'ont mis dedans (they put him inside). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Inna Newbie Russian Federation Joined 7020 days ago 22 posts - 30 votes | Message 26 of 53 13 September 2005 at 6:23am | IP Logged | ||
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For people with a good command of Russian I strongly recommend looking up http://www.philology.ru/linguistics2/krysin-94.htm - it's a scientific paper on euphemisms in Russian, its author is a well-known Russian linguist.
My own observations: убитые, погибшие - потери близкие отношения - секс глупый - альтернативно одарённый (калька с английского?) In Russain there are more euphemisms connected with political concepts and terminology than with the so-called political correctness. There are aslo some euphemisms for referring to the devil, death and other similar things. My favourite example of using euphemisms is an extract from "12 Chairs" by Ilf and Petrov - an undertaker talks about the way they refer to "die" in their profession. For example, if a merchant dies, he 'приказал долго жить', if an old and kind person dies, he/she 'преставился'. Word combinations of the same meaning - отправился к праотцам, отправился на небеса (в царстиве небесное), ушел от нас, его больше нет с нами. Vice versa, the same concept 'to die' has lots of slang synonyms - гикнулся, перекинулся, ноги протянул, сдох, кони двинул, дал дуба, загнулся, и т.д. It seems to me that Russian doesn't favour euphemisms very much, as the national tradition is mostly 'to call a spade a spade'. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7380 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 27 of 53 13 September 2005 at 8:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Inna, this is a cult dialog in '12 Chairs' with all the different ways of saying 'he died'. I will try to locate that scene on one of my DVDs of films made after the book and perhaps you can help me translate the scene?
I would concur about Russian having less euphemisms, it is quite surprising sometimes for a Westerner since we are so used to water-downed language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| epingchris Triglot Senior Member Taiwan shih-chuan.blog.ntu. Joined 7032 days ago 273 posts - 284 votes 5 sounds Studies: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese, German, Turkish | Message 28 of 53 14 September 2005 at 6:55am | IP Logged | ||
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In Chinese we have loads of euphemisms, both ancient and modern.
"to die" (si3) is also called "to return west on cranes"(jia4 he4 xi1 guei1) "to respond to the God's beckoning"(meng2 zhu3 en1/chong3 zhao4) "to leave this world" (guo4/qu4 shi4) "have gone" (zou3 le) "went away" (qu4 le) "to have a raised pigtail" (qiao4 bian4 zi) "hung" (gua4 le) Moreoever, a person who is close to dying is called "the sun close to the west mountains" (ri4 bo2 xi1 shan1), and the emperor's descedence is called "the seat collapsed" (jia4 beng1). Ghosts are also called "good brothers" (hao3 xiong1 di4); menstruating cycles are also called "good friends" (hao3 peng2 you3) or "big aunt" (da4 yi2 ma1). Poos or shi*ts (pardon my language; I just can't think of any other better term for it) are also called "gold" (huang2 jin1); prostitutes are also called "women of wind and dust" (feng1 chen2 nyu3 zi3); abortions are also called "to take away the kids" (ba3 hai2 zi na2 diao4). Governement employees are also called "public servant" (gong1 pu2)(from English, I guess); police officers are also called "babysitters for the people" (ren2 min2 bao3 mu3). Immigrant spouses (usually from southeast Asia) are usually called "foreign brides" (wai4 ji2 xin1 niang2), but many people (including me) think this term is a bit derogatory, so they propose the use of "new immigrant females" (xin1 yi2 min2 nyu3 xing4) instead, or the neutral term "foreign spouses" (wai4 ji2 pei4 ou3) can be used. A common term to refer to homosexuals is "comrades" (tong2 ji4), because they start with the same character (tong2). Two interesting euphemisms that I thought of are for male WC and female WC respectively: "tower for watching the waterfalls" (guan1 pu4 lou2) and "verdana for listening to the rains" (ting1 yu3 xuan1). Edited by epingchris on 14 September 2005 at 7:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7107 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 29 of 53 14 September 2005 at 8:39am | IP Logged | ||
Of course English also contains many euphemisms for dying/dead and for examples, I can think of nothing better than a slightly paraphrased extract from the infamous Monty Pyton Parrot Sketch: He's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker! He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed him to the perch he'd be pushing up the daisies! His metabolic processes are now history! He's off the twig! He's kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleeding choir invisible!! This is an ex-parrot!! There's a few to be going on with. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Inna Newbie Russian Federation Joined 7020 days ago 22 posts - 30 votes | Message 30 of 53 14 September 2005 at 8:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Oh, my... Thank you, epingchris.
That's amazing, I mean Chinese euphemisms are. Just to compare (I'm giving the original meaning of the word and its Russian euphemistic synonyms in English translation) to die - to go to one's forefathers, to leave this world, to go to our Father in Heaven, to be with us no longer, to order others to live long, to go (leave), to leave this world (like in Chinese), the road of his life ended Cycles - critical days to visit WC - to go wash one's hands, to prim oneslf up devil - the unclean one, the crafty one prostitute - night butterfly Unfortunately, though I personally am not a fan of slang or rude expressions I find it hard to remember euphemisms though slang expressions just keep offering themselves. As to foreign brides. As is well known, during perestroika many Russian women married foreigners and left. They especially favoured Americans. In those times there was a saying, "An American is not a spouse, but a means of transportation." Cynical, but I hope it's unerstandable that unfortunately not everyone of foreign brides or foreign husbands are really in love with each other. Edited by Inna on 14 September 2005 at 9:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Inna Newbie Russian Federation Joined 7020 days ago 22 posts - 30 votes | Message 31 of 53 14 September 2005 at 9:18am | IP Logged | ||
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2 administrator.
Actually the dialogue is taken from a brilliant comic novel by Ilf and Petrov "12 Chairs". If you would like to read the original Russian text, see http://www.lib.ru/ILFPETROV/author12.txt It's the full Russian text of the novel. Don't worry about reading and downloading, it's all legal, the text is given in the free online library Moshkov. The dialogue runs as follows, -- Умерла Клавдия Ивановна,-сообщил заказчик. -- Ну, царствие небесное,-согласился Безенчук.Преставилась, значит, старушка... Старушки, они всегда преставляются... Или богу душу отдают,-это смотря&nb sp; какая&n bsp; старушка. Ваша, например, маленькая и в теле,-значит преставилась. А, например, которая покрупнее да похудее-та, считается, богу душу отдает... -- То есть как это считается? У кого это считается? -- У нас и считается. У мастеров. Вот вы, например, мужчина видный, возвышенного роста, хотя и худой. Вы, считается, ежели, не дай бог, помрете, что в ящик сыграли. А который человек торговый, бывшей купеческой гильдии, тот, значит, приказал долго жить. А если кто чином поменьше, дворник, например, или кто из крестьян, про того говорят: перекинулся или ноги протянул. Но самые могучие когда помирают, железнодорожные кондуктора или из начальства кто, то считается, что дуба дают. Так про них и говорят: "А наш-то, слышали, дуба дал". Потрясенный этой странной классификацией человеческих смертей, Ипполит Матвеевич спросил: -- Ну, а когда ты помрешь, как про тебя мастера скажут? -- Я-человек маленький. Скажут: "гигнулся Безенчук". А больше ничего не скажут. И строго добавил: -- Мне дуба дать или сыграть в ящик-невозможно: у меня комплекция мелкая... "Claudia Ivanovna's dead," his client informed him. "Well, God rest her soul," said Bezenchuk. "So the old lady's passed away. Old ladies pass away . . . or they depart this life. It depends who she is. Yours, for instance, was small and plump, so she passed away. But if it's one who's a bit bigger and thinner, then they say she has departed this life. . . ." "What do you mean 'they say'? Who says?" "We say . The undertakers. Now y ou, for instance. You're& nbsp; distinguished-lookin' and tall, though a bit on the thin side. If you should die, God forbid, they'll say you popped off. But a tradesman, who belonged to the former merchants' guild, would breathe his last. And if it's someone of lower status, say a caretaker, or a peasant, we say he has croaked or gone west. But when the high-ups die, say a railway conductor or someone in administration, they say he has kicked the bucket. They say: 'You know our boss has kicked the bucket, don't you?' " Shocked by this curious classification of human mortality, Ippolit Matveyevich asked: "And what will the undertakers say about you when you die?" "I'm small fry. They'll say, 'Bezenchuk's gone', and nothin' more." And then he added grimly: "It's not possible for me to pop off or kick the bucket; I'm too small. Edited by Inna on 14 September 2005 at 9:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Farley Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 7096 days ago 681 posts - 739 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, GermanB1, French Studies: Spanish | Message 32 of 53 17 September 2005 at 9:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here is another one to add to the list:
In the US business world if someone is pursuing other opportunities it means that someone just got fired. Example: An employee asks, “What happened to George who used to work in accounting?” The boss answers, “Well, George is now pursuing other opportunities.” (In other words, we just fired the bastard and don’t ask any questions.) Edited by Farley on 17 September 2005 at 9:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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