| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| euphemism |
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| SYLLABICATION: | eu·phe·mism |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  y  f -m z m |
| NOUN: | The act or an example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt, or offensive: “Euphemisms such as ‘slumber room’ . . . abound in the funeral business” (Jessica Mitford). | | ETYMOLOGY: | Greek euph mismos, from euphmizein, to use auspicious words, from euphmi , use of auspicious words : eu-, eu- + phm, speech; see bh-2 in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | euphe·mist —NOUN
euphe·mistic (-mstk) —ADJECTIVE
euphe·misti·cal·ly —ADVERB
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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