I'm in the home stretch of the second book of Lev Grossman's Magicians series. Basic premise: imagine that you're a huge fan of the Narnia series, and also a magician at magic college. And then you find out that Narnia is real, and a lot darker than the books led you to believe. That's the most simplistic way of putting it, but you should probably read the series yourself. But the series is told from the point of view of a high school/college-aged boy named Quentin. Clearly, since there is a young adult male protagonist, there are euphemisms sprinkled liberally through the books.

Euphamism Definition

Definition of Euphemism

We use the word “euphemism” pretty liberally in modern conversation, but what does it actually mean?

A euphemism, put plainly, is a gentler or more polite way of phrasing a thought than what might be the most direct and blunt way of phrasing.

For example, saying that a resident of a retirement home is advanced in age is a euphemism for saying that they're old. Enhanced interrogation is what some people call the practice of torture, and doing the no-pants dance is probably my favorite euphemism for sex.

Euphemism in Film and Literature

Euphemisms can also be entertaining in their own right. Everyone who's seen the original Anchorman movie knows about Ron Burgundy's affinity for unusual substitutions for profanity (“Great Odin's raven!” and “Son of a bee sting!” being just a few examples).

A Christmas Story has the famous “Oh fudge” scene, which the narrator then explains was not actually the word he used.

In the Harry Potter series, the words Muggle and Mudblood are unique wizard euphemisms for a human without the ability to perform magic, and a wizard born from two Muggle parents, respectively.

How Writers Can Use Euphemism

Euphemisms can add to your writing by creating new vocabulary for your setting, as J.K. Rowling did in Harry Potter, or by establishing character tics, in the case of Ron Burgundy.

Euphemisms can also help ease your readers into a concept, or can serve as a parallel concept for modern society. If nothing else, you've got the fodder for  a short story about thirteen-year-old boys trading awkward euphemisms during gym class.

What's your favorite euphemism?

PRACTICE

Write for fifteen minutes using as many euphemisms as you can. Try to use a variety of euphemism categories as well (profanity, violence, politeness, etc.).

Post your practice in the comments and leave notes for other writers.

Liz Bureman has a more-than-healthy interest in proper grammatical structure, accurate spelling, and the underappreciated semicolon. When she's not diagramming sentences and reading blogs about how terribly written the Twilight series is, she edits for the Write Practice, causes trouble in Denver, and plays guitar very slowly and poorly. You can follow her on Twitter (@epbure), where she tweets more about music of the mid-90s than writing.

36
Share to...