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What are euphemisms?
English has a wealth of euphemisms. They are coded expressions that we use when whatever we are referring to is considered inappropriate for the circumstances or when we are embarrassed or uncomfortable with the literal version. As one might expect, many euphemisms relate to death or to what a true euphemist would refer to as 'the trouser region'.
Euphemisms go back to the beginnings of the language but the word euphemism itself wasn't defined until Thomas Blount included it in his Glossographia in 1656:
Euphemism, a good or favourable interpretation of a bad word.
Many euphemisms are old but new ones continue to be coined: for every Shakespearian 'beast with two backs' there's a 20th century 'knee trembler'.
The euphemisms that people have adopted in order to avoid saying 'Jesus' or 'God' are called minced oaths.
Here's a select list of common euphemisms...
A little of what you fancy does you good
Breathe one's last (Die)
Brown trousers (Defecate through fear)
Built for comfort not speed (Fat)
Cash in your chips (Die)
Cement shoes (Dead)
Change into your brown trousers (Defecate through fear)
Chutney ferret (Homosexual)
Come to Jesus (Die)
Comfort woman (Prostitute)
Concrete shoes - Put on your (Die)
Cross over to the other side (Die)
Dear John (Break up message)
Depart this life (Die)
Departed - The (A dead person)
Drop off the perch (Die)
Eternal rest (Death)
Ethnic cleansing (Racial genocide)
First base (Kissing)
Fourth base (Sexual intercourse)
Full figured (Fat)
Gardening leave (Unemployment)
Gentleman friend (Lover)
Get your leg over (Have sex)
Give up the ghost (die)
Go all the way (Have sex)
Go down for the third time (Die)
Happy event - A (Birth)
Hide the sausage (Sex)
Hot to trot (Sexually excited)
Fallen off the back of a lorry
Knee trembler (Sex in a standing position)
Knocking shop (Brothel)
Laid off (Made unemployed)
Leave the room (Visit the lavatory)
Leg over (Sex)
Lie back and think of England (Have sex)
Light in the loafers (Homosexual)
Lose your lunch (Vomit)
Make hay (Have sex)
Making whoopee (Having sex)
Meat packer (Homosexual)
Meet your maker (Die)
Missing in action (Dead)
No longer with us (Dead)
Not tonight Josephine (Refusal of offer of sex)
On Carey Street (Bankrupt)
On the job (Having sex)
One off the wrist (Masturbation)
One sandwich short of a picnic
Pillow biter (Homosexual)
Praying at the porcelain altar
Restricted growth (Short)
Roll in the hay (Sex)
Shoot blanks (Be sterile)
Shuffle off to Buffalo (Die)
Slap and tickle (Sex)
Sleep around (Be promiscuous)
Snatched from us (Died)
Something for the weekend sir?
Spend more time with my family
Supreme sacrifice (Death)
The beast with two backs (A couple engaged in sex)
The birds and the bees (Sexual reproduction)
The love that dare not speak its name
The smallest room in the house
Turn a trick (Have sex for money)
Turn up your toes (Die)
Visually challenged (Short-sighted)
Wearing your apron high (Pregnant)
Well fed (Fat)
Wham bam and thank you ma'am (Brief sex)
By Gary Martin
Gary Martin is a writer and researcher on the origins of phrases and the creator of the Phrase Finder website. Over the past 26 years more than 700 million of his pages have been downloaded by readers. He is one of the most popular and trusted sources of information on phrases and idioms.
