Favourite euphemisms?

[lawyerdad]

Originally Posted by Britalian

If you haven't heard it used as sarcasm, how have you heard it used? What is evident in proNUNciation to some people is not always evident to others.

Is not the 'abbreviation' you refer to the obvious (after some consideration) meaning of the phrase? Why would someone use the particular words used in this phrase to mean the opposite of the established phrase 'I couldn't care less'?

The bit in the middle was, I expect, used by Mr Pinker to try to represent the contrasting phrases and their pronunciation, as you rightly stated.

I can see how an interpretation that you support (ie. that it's been misheard and corrupted by certain people) stands up, but surely you can also see the capacity for the interpretation I quoted too. No?

Believe me, if you give the phrase the correct inflexion/inflection, you can produce a sarcastic tone; similarly, you can not produce such a tone and deliver as flatly as you have no doubt heard it spoken.
Both explanations are rational. I'm inclined, however, to agree with rdawson. I'm confident that if I had pointed out the apparent incongruity in the phrase "I could care less" to everyone I hear utter that phrase, at least 90% would reply with a befuddled stare; I would be pleasantly surprised if someone were to reply that they fully understood the literal import of their words but had been speaking sarcastically.

 

[Saucemaster]

I think most people who use "I could care less" never think about it, just like most people never think about most of the euphemisms they pick up, but I use it occasionally, and I've always understood it as shorthand for something to the effect of "I suppose I could care less... but that seems unlikely." So closer to Pinker's analysis. You have to ask yourself why someone would say "I could care less" in the first place, rather than simply affirming that they actually do care. Sort of a faint praise situation.

 

[Quirk]

Originally Posted by rdawson808

Another common one is "you have another think coming" which people mistakenly think is "you have another thinG coming." No, you think X, but are wrong, and therefore have another thinK coming. Yes, it sounds stupid, but it's correct.

b

I don't know, newlywed -- employing 'think' as a noun seems to be the far greater offense here.

As for "I could care less," I'd bet that I've used it myself at one point or another -- I'd guess that for most people over the age of 25 or so, it's a conscious abbreviation of an already-informal expression. I don't know that it even existed 20 years ago, so I'd imagine that at least the older people who use it are being tongue in cheek (or, at the very least, deliberately casual). As far as the younger folk, that may be a different think.

 

[rdawson808]

Originally Posted by Britalian

If you haven't heard it used as sarcasm, how have you heard it used? What is evident in proNUNciation to some people is not always evident to others.

Is not the 'abbreviation' you refer to the obvious (after some consideration) meaning of the phrase? Why would someone use the particular words used in this phrase to mean the opposite of the established phrase 'I couldn't care less'?

.....

Believe me, if you give the phrase the correct inflexion/inflection, you can produce a sarcastic tone; similarly, you can not produce such a tone and deliver as flatly as you have no doubt heard it spoken.


I agree, if you pronounce it in the correct way, it can be sarcasm. I've just never heard anyone pronounce it that way.

I think it is quite simply a matter of mis-hearing it and then repeating it. Nothing more.

I'll try to listen for it some more and see if I hear any sarcasm. Maybe (my gawds, the man may just admit to being wrong...) I'm just being a bit harsh on the younger folks. I have been a bit tired of (some of) my students the last few days.

b

 

[rdawson808]

Originally Posted by edmorel

"Like most guys his age, he wasn't above

licking the buttery monkey."


"You should have seen your face! You looked like you were

saluting the pope's lower dowel"


"As the kids say, she was

lurking in the otter's Welsh yak"


"The last time I saw him, he was

playing hide the red mutton"

I love this euphemism generator

Oh, they're fake. Thank gawd. I was feeling really out of it for a bit. They are fake, right?

b

 

[shoreman1782]

Seems there's some euphemism/idiom conflagration going on here--not that there's no overlap; I guess all euphemisms are idioms. And "couldn't care less" is more litotes, or something, no? I dunno.

As someone mentioned, "lifelong bachelor" always makes me roll my eyes.

 

[Huntsman]

Originally Posted by Britalian

If you haven't heard it used as sarcasm, how have you heard it used? What is evident in proNUNciation to some people is not always evident to others.

Is not the 'abbreviation' you refer to the obvious (after some consideration) meaning of the phrase? Why would someone use the particular words used in this phrase to mean the opposite of the established phrase 'I couldn't care less'?

The bit in the middle was, I expect, used by Mr Pinker to try to represent the contrasting phrases and their pronunciation, as you rightly stated.

I can see how an interpretation that you support (ie. that it's been misheard and corrupted by certain people) stands up, but surely you can also see the capacity for the interpretation I quoted too. No?

Believe me, if you give the phrase the correct inflexion/inflection, you can produce a sarcastic tone; similarly, you can not produce such a tone and deliver as flatly as you have no doubt heard it spoken.

Sure, you can make it sound sarcastic, you can make it appear to have this wonderfully elegant twist in the meaning when it is said commonly, but that's eisegesis, if you will, it is not reality.

I hear this expression everyday on the campus numerous times, and can guarantee that there's no such sophistication. It is cluelessness.

Regards,
Huntsman

 

[Alter]

Originally Posted by rdawson808

Oh, they're fake. Thank gawd. I was feeling really out of it for a bit. They are fake, right? b
Bob, Do not open this at the office unless you enjoy having your co-workers watch you giggling: http://www.walkingdead.net/perl/euphemism

 

[Nantucket Red]

Originally Posted by Alter

Bob,

Do not open this at the office unless you enjoy having your co-workers watch you giggling:

http://www.walkingdead.net/perl/euphemism

Hey! Who's been
poking the bald cheese?!

 

[Toiletduck]

Originally Posted by tiecollector

It is funny you say this because in college most the people I heard about who didn't pass the english proficiency essay exams were Brits I knew (well 2 out of the 3). Americans just pretend to be stupid like their leader to catch the world off guard. Brits just sound smarter because bigger words are in their common vernacular.

Americans are "outwitted by cheese", but they are "making the cheese," so to speak.

English Proficiency essay exams are biased towards asian americans! unfair argument

 

[Britalian]

Originally Posted by Huntsman

Sure, you can make it sound sarcastic, you can make it appear to have this wonderfully elegant twist in the meaning when it is said commonly, but that's eisegesis, if you will, it is not reality.

I hear this expression everyday on the campus numerous times, and can guarantee that there's no such sophistication. It is cluelessness.

Regards,
Huntsman

I'd be inclined to agree. In the delivery, most people have no idea of it. The youngsters say it, I'm sure, without having an idea of its capacity: they probably suspect it's a twist on the old standard yet don't consider how or why; they don't know that they are using a sarcastic remark. (This assumes they are old enough to have heard the original!)

However, I'd be interested to hear whether they intend its actual meaning, or not: a little field research, Prof?

Unfortunately I'm not in a native English environment else I'd pounce on one of the little rascals myself.

 

[rdawson808]

Originally Posted by Alter

Bob,

Do not open this at the office unless you enjoy having your co-workers watch you giggling:

http://www.walkingdead.net/perl/euphemism


OMG, it's genius!

Hey! Who's been going to town on the hot trouser cowboy?!

I want someone to see if they can get one of these "euphemisms" going around. Any chances?

I've been trying to get the word "superfair" into my students' lexicon, with little success so far. [Superfair is a concept in regulatory economics that essentially means that no one is jealous of anyone else, vis-a-vis what they have to pay for a service.]

b

 

[masqueofhastur]

"Pro choice" it's a double euphemism, choice is a euphemism for abortion, and abortion is a euphemism for killing babies.

 

[chrysalid]

Is baby a euphemism for foetus?

 

[Britalian]

is 'anti-abortionist' or 'pro-life' a euph. for 'fundamentalist christian'?