A Dictionary of Euphemisms

More about the book

Now in paperback, this brand new edition of A Dictionary of How Not To Say What You Mean is still as lively a guide to the language of evasion, hypocrisy, prudery, and deceit as you could wish for. Packed full of the old favourites, such as 'early bath' or 'push up the daisies', aswell as euphemisms from modern times, like 'human sacrifice', 'coffee-housing', and 'tuft-hunter'.Definitions include examples from literature and the press, along with historical explanations of origins, and now obsolete euphemisms like 'leaping house', 'nightingale' are signposted as such. And to prove that the use of euphemisms is not just a British speciality, there is widespread coverageof American euphemisms 'English' (pertaining to sexual deviance), 'watermelon' (an indication of pregnancy).