ERIC Partridge's fascinating book, Usage and Abusage, contains a classification of euphemisms which is so enlightening that I thought it would be worthwhile spending another article on this curious sideline of language.
Patridge gives six major categories of euphemisms: 1. The desire to adapt oneself to the surrounding atmosphere. This includes such euphemisms as baby-language (eg the idiocy of teaching a baby that a dog is called a ''bow-wow'' when the word ''dog'' is easy enough already!) and the avoidance of technical terms (doctors do this often so that their patients can understand what they are talking about).
A nice example of this was an incident which happened to me in northern France (of course it was in French, but loses little in the translation). A French farmer had given me a lift in his old ramshackle car, and we were going along the road steadily chatting in basic French; suddenly the car slowed down, and the engine made a horrid clanking noise. The farmer stopped, opened the boot, looked back at me and said something so totally unintelligible that I could not catch a word. Seeing that I was incapableof understanding the technical language, he interpreted, ''Very serious mechanical fault.'' 2. The desire to enhance the value or status of something. One common form of this is the honorific titles with which we address royalty, nobility, and the members of certain professions (eg Your Highness, Your Grace, Professor, Doctor). Sometimes you will find a bar labelled a saloon, or, in Hong Kong particularly, a lounge. Striking examples of this may be found among some modern job titles, rodent operative for rat catcher, waste disposal officer for dustman, or office assistant for errand boy. As Hilaire Belloc wrote: A louse is still but a louse Though it crawls on the curls of a queen.
3. Words of respect or a desire not to give offence. You may talk of coloured men, not blacks or negroes; your house is cleaned by a charlady, not a charwoman; if a man becomes immensely rich, even by the most disreputable means, he becomes a financier. Shakespeare in King Lear says all this as well as it has ever been said: Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks; Arm it in rags, a pygmy's straw does pierce it.
4. The need to diminish something painful, especially death, which is sometimes mentioned by such phrases as: to join the great majority to go west (the west is the place where the isles of the blessed may be found) 5. Social and moral taboos. It is not proper to mention sex or bodily functions (though this taboo is rapidly breaking down); I have already given many of these particular euphemisms in an earlier article. Here are a few more.
drunk . . . happy, elevated, half seas over, well away pregnant . . . in an interesting condition obscene . . . blue, hot, frank 6. Another major category of euphemisms concerns the name of God or other religious matters. In the time of the Old Testament Jews, the name of God might not be written or spoken, and it is shown in the Old Testament by the letters YHWH. This is traditionally printed as Jehovah; the point is that the vowel sounds are just not known (a better approximation might be Yahweh).
Names have always been sacred things, so much so that the word ''name'' can mean ''reputation''.