Euphemism

A euphemism is a word or expression that names, in a softened, indirect or veiled way, an object, action or phenomenon that it is awkward to designate directly for ethical, religious or social reasons: "passed into eternity" instead of "died," "a person of advanced age" instead of "old." A euphemism rests on social notions of propriety, taboo and politeness, replacing a harsh or unpleasant concept with a gentler synonym or descriptive turn of phrase. In literary speech a euphemism may create an ironic effect or characterise a personage through their manner of expression. The opposite phenomenon is the dysphemism — a deliberately coarsened substitution. Euphemisms are an important subject of stylistics, sociolinguistics and the study of the linguistic picture of the world.