Euphemism literary definition and examples-euphemism example sentence

Euphemism literary definition and examples-euphemism example sentence

 The substitution of an inoffensive expression for one considered offensively explicit.

Euphemism Examples in everyday life

-- You are becoming a little thin on top (bald).

-- Our teacher is in the family way (Pregnant).

-- He is always tired and emotional (drunk).

-- We do not hire mentally challenged (stupid) people.

-- He is a special child (disabled or retarded)

Examples of Euphemism:

 #Example no 1

 Examples of euphemism referring to sex are found in william shakespeare`s "Othello" and " Antony and Cleopatra ". In " Othello", Act 1 scene 1, Iago tells brabantio:

"I am one, Sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs."

Here,the expression "making the beast with two backs" refers to the act of having sex.

#Example no 2

 John donne in this poem "The flea" employs euphemism. He says: "Mark but this flea, and mark in this, How little that Which thou denies me is; It suck`d me first,and now sucks thee, And in this flea our two bloods mingled be. Thou know`st that this cannot be said  A sin, nor shame,nor loss of maidenhead; Yet this enjoys before it woo, And pamper`d swells with one blood made of two; And this ,Alas! is more than we would woo."

I Do Not Fail 

I succeed in finding out what does not work.

         In order to persuade his beloved to sleep with him, the speaker in the poem tells her how a flea bit both of them and their blood got mixed in it. This is a euphemism.

#Example no 3

 "The squealer", A character in George orwell`s " Animal Farm", uses euphemisms to help "the pigs" achieve their political ends. To announce the reduction of food to the animals of the farm, Orwell quotes him saying:

"For the time being," he explains, "it had been found necessary to make a readjustment of  rations."

 Substituting the word " reduction" with "readjustment"was an attempt to suppress the complaints of other animals about hunger. It works because reduction means "cutting" food supply while readjustment implies changing the current amount of food.