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OXFORD How Not To Say What You Mean A Dictionary of Euphemisms R. W. H O L D E R This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Having seen something written by Bob Holder as a schoolboy, T. S. Eliot remarked Thar boy loves words'. This love oï language underlies this new edition of A Dictionary of Euphemisms. Bob has lived in West Monkton, near Taunton, since 1951. He has worked for manufacturing companies in Ireland, Belgium, and North America in addition to those in the United Kingdom and has also held a number of public appointments. From 1974 to 1984 he was Treasurer of the University of Bath and remained a Pro-Chancellor until 1997. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com From its first appearance in 1987 as A Dictionary of American and British Euphemisms, Boh Holder's work has been the standard refer- ence hook tor those studying the language of evasion and understatement. This new edition, renamed / low Not To Say What You Mean, has been completely rewritten. It retains old favourites while adding over a thousand new entries, which reflect modern euphemistic terms on such issues as marriage, race, homosexuality, drug-taking, and security ol employment. The quotations which accompany entries are both illustrative and interesting in their own right. Where appropriate, the etymology of a term is explained, giving a philological insight into this universally used, hut little studied, branch of our language. Jacket design: Simon Levy Jacket illustration: Photodisc This is trial version www.adultpdf.com 'A browser's delight' Reference Review How Nut To Su> What Vow Mean unmasks the language >>t hypocrisy, evasion, prudery, and deceit. This hugely entertaining collection highlights our tendency to use mild, vague, or roundabout expressions in preference to words that are precise, blunt, and often uncomfortably accurate Entries, drawn from all aspects of life: work, sexuality, aye, money, and politics, provide the red meaning tor well-known phrases such as above your ceiling, gardening leave, rest and recreation, count the daisies, God's waiting room, washed up, and fact-finding mission. Review.s of the previous editions 'This ingenious collection is not only very tunny but extremely instructive too Iris Murdoch 'A most valuable and splendidlv presented collection; at once scholarly, tasteful, and witty.' I-ord Quirk 'Your complete guide to every euphemism you could ever wan! to know and many you would rather not' Daily Wail OXPORD UNIVhRS! IV PRESS ISBN 0-19-860402-5 780198 604020 www.oup.com I9RRP $18.95 '. This is trial version www.adultpdf.com How Not To Say What You Mean A Dictionary of Euphemisms This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Reviews of previous editions 'A most valuable and splendidly presented collection; at once scholarly, tasteful, and witty.' Lord Quirk 'Euphemists are a lively, inventive, self-regarding and bumptious bunch. Holder goes among them with an etymological glint in his eye.' lain Finlayson, Financial Times 'this fascinating book... don't put this dictionary in the loo -there's another euphemism for you - or else guests will never come out. It's unputdownable once you open it.' Peter Mullen, Yorkshire Post 'Concise, well-organized entries' Library Journal (USA) 'I am astonished at its depth and wit' Sam Allen (American lawyer and philologist) 'This bran tub of linguistic gems... A delight for browsers who love the vivid oddities of language... a valuable collection.' City Limits 'A very funny collection' Financial Times 'Many printable gems' Daily Telegraph 'Good bedside reading' Sunday Telegraph 'It will surely take its place... as a browser's delight and it will entertain book lovers for many hours, whilst at the same time providing useful background information, as well as instruction and clarification to many.' Reference Review 'An informative, amusing collection' The Observer 'Hugely enjoyable and cherishable' Times Educational Supplement 'Lovers of word play will have a field day' Herald Express, Torquay 'Excellent, informative, entertaining.' Wilson Literary Bulletin (USA) 'Great fun, but not for the maiden aunt.' Sunday TelegraphThis is trial version www.adultpdf.com How Not To Say What You Mean A Dictionary of Euphemisms R. W. HOLDER OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS This is trial version www.adultpdf.com OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sào Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York C: R. W. Holder 1995, 2002 The moral rights of the auther have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as A Dictionary of American and British Euphemisms by Bath University Press 1987 Revised edition published by Faber and Faber Limited 1989 Second edition first published as A Dictionary of Euphemisms by Oxford University Press 1995, and in paperback 1996 This third edition first published as How Not to Say What You Mean: A Dictionary of Euphemisms in 2002 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Holder, R. W. How not to say what you mean: a dictionary of euphemisms / R. W. Holder. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index. ISBN 0-19-860402-5 1. English language-Euphemism-Dictionaries. 2. English language-Synonyms and antonyms. 3. English language-Terms and Phrases. 4. Vocabulary. I. Title. PE1449 .H548 2002 423M-dc21 2002074261 ISBN 0-19-860402-5 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 Typeset in 7.5/8.5pt OUP Swift Light by Kolam Information Services Pvt. Ltd, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives picThis is trial version www.adultpdf.com Contents An Explanation Bibliography A Dictionary of Euphemisms Thematic Index vi X 1 449 This is trial version www.adultpdf.com An Explanation W hen I started gathering euphemisms in 1977 with adictionary in mind, nothing similar had been pub-lished. I was free to choose the form the collection should take, to speculate on the etymology, and to lay down the criteria for entry or rejection. It was not, I felt, a subject to be taken too seriously, considering the ridiculous nature of many of the euphemisms we use in everyday speech. I accepted Fowler's definition: 'Euphemism means the use of a mild or vague or periphrastic expression as a substitute for blunt precision or disagreeable use' (Modern English Usage, 1957). A second test soon emerged: that the euphemistic word or phrase once meant, or prima facie still means, something else. Because many euphemisms have become such a part of standard English that we think only of the current usage, I sometimes remind the reader of what the word means literally, or used to mean. In speech and writing, we use euphemism when dealing with taboo or sensitive subjects. It is therefore also the language of evasion, of hypocrisy, of prudery, and of deceit. Fewer than one in a hundred of the entries in the Dictionary cannot be classified under a specific heading shown in the Thematic Index. Some of the entries may be judged by the reader to be dysphemisms, or neither euphem- ism or dysphemism. The selection is of necessity subjective, and there may also be cases where one woman's euphemism is another man's dysphemism. With regard to inclusive language, for the sake of brevity I stay with the old, politically incorrect rule that the use of the masculine pronoun may, where appropriate, also include the feminine. I have left out anything which does not feature in literary or common use, unless it adds to our understanding of how language evolves. I also omit anything which I have only found in another dictionary. Inevitably, living in England and having worked during the past quarter century mainly there and in Ireland, the selection reflects the speech on this side of the Atlantic, despite my frequent This is trial version www.adultpdf.com An Explanation visits on business to Canada and the United States. Happily English literature is universal, with Indian, South African, and Australian writers as available as those from North America and the British Isles. The subjects about which we tend to use euphemisms change along with our social attitudes, although euphemisms asso- ciated with sexual behaviour and defecation have shown remark- able staying powers. We are more open than the Victorians about mental illness, brothels, and prostitution, less prudish about court- ship and childbirth, less terrified about bankruptcy. In turn we can be less direct than they were when referring to charity, education, commercial practice, and race, among other things. In the last twenty-five years there has been a shift in our attitude to such matters as female employment, sexual variety, marriage, illegitim- acy, the ingestion of illegal drugs, abortion, job security, and sexual pursuit. Even in the seven years which have elapsed between the previous collection and this one, out of some 1,200 new entries, the heaviest concentration is in these subjects, while euphemisms re- lating to alcohol or to death, for example, have remained relatively unchanged. The derivation of many euphemisms through association is obvious, such as death with resting or sleeping, or urination with washing. Another source is from a foreign language, and I include examples from Latin, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Hindi, Japanese, and Tagalog, many of which were brought home by servicemen. Rhyming slang is also used euphemistically. Some other usages take more puzzling out. For example, to understand why a mentally ill person might be described as being East Ham demands knowledge of the London railway network, in which the East Ham station is one stop short of Barking. I try not to bore the reader by pointing out obvious imagery, but the etymology of euphemism, so much of which passes into standard English, does not seem to have been the subject of published academic research. It seemed a denial of what I was trying to achieve if I had to define one euphemism by the use of another. However, with certain This is trial version www.adultpdf.com An Explanation words this is unavoidable. In the case of'lavatory, for example, there is no synonym which is not, like lavatory itself, a euphemism. We have no specific word for a woman who copulates and cohabits with a man outside wedlock, and I use mistress without any qualifying prefix. I also use promiscuous a.ndpromiscuity as definitions in a sexual, rather than a general sense. Because fuck and shit are ugly words which jar with constant repetition, I use the euphemistic copulation and defecation in their stead. Then there are words which have undesirable connotations which make them better avoided as def- initions, such as cripple, bastard, whore, and spinster. No area of defin- ition has given me as much pause as that concerned with mental illness, where the use of mad and lunatic can be misleading as well as offensive. To confuse matters, we use the word mad to describe conditions of the mind ranging from mild annoyance or folly to acute dementia, and many of the euphemisms we use about mental illness cover the same wide spectrum. The definitions selected in each case, and there are many, are what seem to me the commonest usages, but I remain aware of their inadequacy. The illustrative quotations have been often chosen because they interest me, rather than being the first published example of the usage. Many of those from obscure 19th-century authors have been taken from Joseph Wright's magisterial English Dialect Diction- ary. Where I have lifted a quotation from another compiler, I say so. For the rest, the quotations come from my own reading, the scope of which has naturally been limited. Even though the majority of my readers have hitherto been in North America, I have stayed with British spelling except where the usage itself is confined to Amer- ica, when defence becomes defense and centre becomes center. Labels such as American or Scottish indicate that the usage is restricted to the regional English specified; and in this case, Ameri- can refers mainly to the United States. My use of narcotics as a definition is made in the knowledge that many drugs illegally ingested have other effects than narcosis. There is not however space enough in the text to enlarge on specific scientific differences and remain within the constraints suggested by my publisher. Because we have a Thematic Index, cross-references have been This is trial version www.adultpdf.com An Explanation kept to a minimum in the text. The use of small capitals indicates where they can be found. Professional and scholarly authors owe a debt to their editors but not to the same extent that I do. My interest in language is a hobby which has given me great pleasure, but my occupation has been not as an academic but as a manufacturer, which provided ample opportunity for reading while travelling as well as frequent contact with people in Europe and America, but not much time for writing. Dr Michael Allen of Bath University published the original edition in 1987 when it seemed unlikely to find a sponsor. The second edition benefited greatly from the advice and other assist- ance given me by Julia Elliott, Sara Tulloch, and Patrick Hanks at the Oxford University Press. The changes in style which have improved the presentation and range of this edition were suggested by Aly- soun Owen and I owe much to Elizabeth Knowles, the most under- standing of editors, and to Andrew Delahunty, who made many helpful suggestions. I must also thank the many readers who have written to me on specific points. None appear more enthusiastic than those in Australia, although I regret that I cannot use any of the material they have sent me, despite its linguistic ingenuity. There are limits to what may be placed on a family bookshelf. My task is not dissimilar to that facing Sisyphus. The lan- guage continues to evolve and it is a poor week in which I do not note two or three new euphemisms, or decide that one previously noted has proved ephemeral. As I complete this explanation, the stone is near the top of the hill but already, with the acceptance of new entries closed, it has started to roll downwards once again. R. W. Holder West Monkton 2002 This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Bibliography Quotations have been included in the text to show how words and phrases were or are used, and when. The date given for each title refers to the first publication or to the edition which I have used. Where an author has deliberately used archaic language, I mention this in the text. The following dictionaries and reference books are referred to by abbreviations: BDPF The Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (Brewer, 1978) DAS Dictionary of American Slang (Wentworth and Flexner, 1975) DRS A Dictionary of Rhyming Slang (Franklin, 1961 ) DSUE A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (Partridge, 1970) EDD The English Dialect Dictionary (Wright, 1898-1905) Grose Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (Grose, 1811) Johnson A Dictionary of the English Language (Johnson, 1775) N&CL Notes & Queries ODE? The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs (Smith and Wilson, 1970) OED The Oxford English Dictionary (1989) SOED The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993) WNCD Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (1977) Adams, J. (1985) Good Intentions Agnus, Orme (1900) Jan Oxber 'Agrikler' (1872) Rhymes in West of England Dialect Ainslie, Hew (1892) A Pilgrimage to the Land of Burns Aldiss, Brian (1988) Forgotten Life Alexander, William (1875-82 edition) Sketches of Life among my Ain Folk Allan, Keith, and Burridge, Kate (1991) Euphemism and Dysphemism Allbeury, Ted (1975) Palomino Blonde (1976) The Only Good German (1976) Moscow Quadrille (1977) The Special Connection (1978) The Lantern Network (1979) The Consequence of Fear (1980) The Twentieth Day of January (1980) The Reaper (1981) The Secret Whispers (1982) All Our Tomorrows (1983) Pay Any Price Allen, Charles (1975) Plain Tales from the Raj (1979) Tales from the Dark Continent Allen, Paula Gunn (1992) The Sacred Hoop Allen, Richard (1971) Swedehead Alter (1960) The Exile Amis, Kingsley (1978) Jake's Thing (1980) Russian Hide-and-Seek (1986) The Old Devils (1988) Difficulties with Girls (1990) The Folks that Live on the Hill Anderson, David (1826) Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect Anderson, R. (1805-8 edition) Ballads in the Cumberland Dialect Anderson, William (1867) Rhymes, Reveries and Reminiscences Andrews, William (1899) Bygone Church Life in Scotland Anonymous (1996) Primary Colors Antrobus, C. L. (1901) Wildersmoor Archer, Jeffrey (1979) Kane and Abel Armstrong, Andrew (1890) Ingleside Musings and Tales Armstrong, Louis (1955) Satchmo Ashton, Rosemary (1991) G. H. Lewes Atkinson, J. C. (1891) Forty Years in a Moorland Parish Atwood, Margaret (1988) Cat's Eye (1996) Alias Grace Aubrey, John (1696) Collected Works Axon, W. E. A. (1870) The Black Knight of Ashton Ayto, John (1993) Euphemisms Bacon, Francis (1627) Essays Bagley, Desmond (1977) The Enemy (1982) Windfall Bagnall, Jos (1852) Songs of the Tyne Balchin, Nigel (1964) Fatal Fascination Baldwin, William (1993) The Hard to Catch Mercy Ballantine, James (1869) The Miller ofDeanhaugh Banim, John (1825) O'Hara Tales Barber, Lyn (1991) Mostly Men Barber, Noel (1981) Taramara Barham R. H. (1840) Ingoldsby Legends Barlow, Jane (1892) Bogland Studies This is trial version www.adultpdf.com Bibliography Barnard, Howard, and Lauwerys, Joseph (1963) A Handbook of British Educational Terms Barnes, Julian (1989) A History of the World inW\ Chapters (1991) Talking it Over Baron, Alexander (1948) From the City, From the Plough Barr, John (1861) Poems and Songs Bartram, George (1897) The People of Clapton (1898) The White-Headed Boy Bathurst, Bella (1999) The Lighthouse Stevensons Beard, Henry, and Cerf, Christopher (1992) The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook Beattie, Ann (1989) Picturing Will Beattie, William (1801) Fruits of Time Parings Beatty, W. (1897) The Secretar Beevor, Antony (1998) Stalingrad Behr, Edward (1978) Anyone Here Been Raped and Speaks English? (1989) Hirohito: Beyond the Myth Bence-Jones, Mark (1987) Twilight of the Ascend- ancy Benet, Stephen (1943) A judgment in the Mountains Benn, A. W. (1995) The Benn Diaries (edited by Ruth Winston) Besant, Walter and Rice, James (1872) Ready Money Mortiboy Binchy, Maeve (1985) Echoes Binding, Hilary (1999) Somerset Privies Binns, Aethelbert (1889) Yorkshire Dialect Words Blacker, Terence (1992) The Fame Hotel Blackhall, Alex (1849) Lays of the North Blackmore, R. D. (1869) Lorna Doone Blair, Emma (1990) Maggie Jordan Blanch, Lesli