[ ... ]No matter what population group you look at, past or present, you'll find them. In classical times, nasty verbs such as die and kill were avoided. Instead, people curled up, they went to sleep or on a journey - or they were described as having lived. Nineteenth-century moral code prevented those in polite society from uttering words such as legs, trousers and underclothing. In their place were invisible words such as inexpressibles and unmentionables (you might compare the smalls and foundation garments of last century). Another invisible word in Victorian times was the monosyllable - these days it's the C-word. Many people associate euphemisms with deliberately befuddling language, weasel words and puffery - the sort of doublespeak that turns the loss of human life into collateral damage, and lies into terminological inexactitudes. However, the underlying motives are not always malign. Besides, there will be times when upfront language isn't appropriate. Say you have the inner urge to swear, but it's not the right moment for a full-blown obscenity. Euphemism provides the ''out'' in the form of remodellings such as ''Sugar!'' or ''Shucks!''
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Professor Kate Burridge occupies the chair of linguistics in the school of languages, cultures and linguistics at Monash University. She was a speaker at the TEDx conference in Sydney yesterday.
