Friday, May 04, 2007

EUPHEMISM

The other day at work I started thinking about euphemisms. I like words and word play, but sometimes I don't like euphemisms. Take "death". There was a death in the family. Her grandfather died. I saw a dead guy on the sidewalk in Vancouver. These are all perfectly fine for me. What often bothers me are euphemisms that exist to soften the blow of death. He passed. Passed what? Statistics 101? Departed. Deceased. Gone to a better place. Checked out. Bit the big one. Bit the dust. Bought the farm. Cashed in their chips. Gone south. Pushing up daisies. Six feet under. Kicked the bucket. Croaked. Some of these soften by making light of the matter - I like them best. I was talking to a friend once about when my Grandma died and he corrected me - he told me I should say passed, it sounds nicer. It may sound nicer but it's not brutal enough to correspond with the devastation of having lost my Grandma!

So while thinking in the euphemistic vein, I wondered how many I could come up with for that part of the anatomy on which we sit. We got 43. I say we, because it became a group effort.

AFT
ARSE
ASS
BACK
BACKSIDE
BADONKADONK
BEHIND
BOOMBOSITY
BOOTY
BOTTOM
BREECH
BUM
BUTT
BUTTOCKS
CABOOSE
CAN
CHEEKS
CROUP
DERRIER
DUFF (does this mean on the Simpsons, they're drinking Butt Beer?)
FANNY
FUNDAMENT
GLUTES
GLUTEUS MAXIMUS
HAUNCHES
HEINIE
HIND END
HIND PART
HIND QUARTERS
KEISTER
MOON
POSTERIOR
PRAT
REAR
RUMP
SACRUM
SEAT
STERN
TAIL
TRUNK
TSUKIS
TUSH
TUSHIE

A couple of these terms were completely new to me, and one may be a word specific to my family, well really, specific to my Grandma. (Did I mention she was my most favorite person in the whole world?) Have we missed any?

P.S. Thanks to my cohorts, George & Michael.

3 Comments:

At 9:54 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tuchus!

 
At 10:01 AM, Blogger Patti Auburn said...

Thanks for the suggestion. I have it coverd in it's alternate Yiddish spelling: TSUKIS
(Or at least, what I think is it's Yiddish spelling!)

 
At 5:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Patootie

 

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