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Euphemisms in your language | ||
Tags: Euphemisms | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| epingchris Triglot Senior Member Taiwan shih-chuan.blog.ntu. Joined 7028 days ago 273 posts - 284 votes  5 sounds Studies: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese, German, Turkish | Message 33 of 53 24 September 2005 at 8:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I thought of some other Mandarin euphemisms:
To intercourse with someone can also be called "to create a relationship" (fa1 sheng1 guan1 xi1) or to have "the happiness of fish and water" (yu2 shui3 zhi1 huan1) or to "fry rice" (chao3 fan4) To be pregnant can also be called "had it" (you3 le). To be having a MC cycle can also be called "it has come" (lai2 le) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Skandinav Hexaglot Senior Member Denmark Joined 6887 days ago 139 posts - 145 votes Speaks: Danish*, English, German, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian | Message 34 of 53 23 January 2006 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I don't care much for political correctness in general. Obviously some words like "indian" are incorrect, since Columbus after all never encountered any "Indians"; he discovered America (again?). Often some terms are introduced by the ruling class in order to make it seem like they really care, and then these terms are forced upon the populace. I have ambibalent feeling about the term Afro-American. Of course US politicians are free to make whatever new terms they like, and taking into account that the US' identity is based upon a political community rather than one ethnicity, I guess the word is ok. On the other hand I don't see what's wrong with the word negro. It is a correct term according to most dictionairies, and even though Sub-Saharan Africans don't like the word, they probably have some strange words about Whites as well. And that really can't piss me off. The word is still widely used in Denmark, and the negroes I know find the word ok. It is all a matter of context. It serves no purpose shouting it at someone across a bar asking him to bring your beer. Recently we also saw the introduction of the word "Nydansker" littr. "New Dane." That is ridiculous because the purpose of this word is to remove the distinction betwenn "us" and "them", and adding a prefix doesn't change that distinction. I'd still use terms such as Muslim (when relevant) or Turk, Somalian, Norwegian etc.
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| mintgreennova Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6186 days ago 24 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, German | Message 35 of 53 20 December 2007 at 4:10pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
A few months ago, I promise I heard someone use the word "fluffy" to describe n overweight person. I almost didn't believe it. Also, "that time of the month" for women with pre-menstrual syndrome is rather popular. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 36 of 53 21 December 2007 at 10:59am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I like "sadly lacking in the smarts department" for "stupid".
The film Clueless has a few, including "surfing the crimson wave" for "menstruation". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6894 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 37 of 53 21 December 2007 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
There was a whole list of those that I ran across on the net once. A couple that come to mind are "has delusions of adequacy", and "he is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| vanityx3 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6461 days ago 331 posts - 326 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 38 of 53 24 January 2008 at 11:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||
haha "Fluffy" thats pretty funny. I would never think of obese as being a euphemism of fat, I would think of it as the opposite. When I hear obese, i just think really fat. Also sexual anatomy can have some euphamisms, Many girls call their female genatalia, "down there" in America, and males have many names for there genatalia, I think most males think almost anything sounds better than saying penis. Edited by vanityx3 on 24 January 2008 at 11:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| alfajuj Diglot Senior Member Taiwan Joined 6211 days ago 121 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Taiwanese, French | Message 39 of 53 05 May 2008 at 4:40am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Actually "overweight" and "obese" are not euphemisms. They are just general terminology.
Overweight just means over healthy range weight. Obese means extremely overweight. It is determined by one's body mass index (BMI) BMI is a simple ratio of one's height to one's weight. BMI 25~29.9 = overweight BMI 30 or more = obese BMI 40 or more = morbidly obese (aka clinically severe obesity) The euphemism would be to say that a person "has a weight control problem" or simply say the person is "heavy". "Heavy" is gentler sounding than "fat". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Gilgamesh Tetraglot Senior Member England Joined 6242 days ago 452 posts - 468 votes 14 sounds Speaks: Dutch, English, German, French Studies: Polish | Message 40 of 53 05 May 2008 at 6:02am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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After having read what I read, how could I not post this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h67k9eEw9AY No, seriously, this is really, really good. Edited by Gilgamesh on 05 May 2008 at 6:04am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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