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44-495: (Redirected from F-word ) [REDACTED] Look up f-word in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. F Word or The F Word may refer to: Any of several words that begins with the letter " f ", often used as a euphemism where they may be considered controversial, particularly; " fuck " and " faggot ". Film and television [ edit ] The F Word (British TV series) ,

88-593: A junior boy who serves a senior boy in a British public school. Likewise, the word "fanny" when used in American English is a euphemism for one's buttocks, so benign that children use it. However, in British, Australian, New Zealand, and South African English, the word "fanny" is slang for vulva and is considered to be vulgar. Some phrases that are euphemisms in certain contexts can be considered dysphemistic in others. These are often referred to as X-phemisms: whether

132-492: A rhetorical strategy , in which case its goal is to change the valence of a description. Using a euphemism can in itself be controversial, as in the following examples: The use of euphemism online is known as " algospeak " when used to evade automated online moderation techniques used on Meta and TikTok's platforms. Algospeak has been used in debate about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict . Phonetic euphemism

176-429: A child usually called "Billy" is addressed by a parent as "William". Dysphemism may also be indicated by the disuse or substitution of someone's name or title. For instance, someone named Teresa who made overstated claims for a company-paid trip could be described as "the little witch who charmed the boss into approving that phony expense report". Anger or dissatisfaction with the listener (or group of people) may compel

220-455: A cooking show featuring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay The F Word (American TV series) , the U.S. version of the cooking show featuring Gordon Ramsay The F Word (2005 film) , a film starring Josh Hamilton The F Word (2013 film) , a film starring Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan (retitled to What If ) "The F Word" ( South Park ) , a 2009 episode of the U.S. television series South Park "The F Word", an episode from season 4 of

264-441: A euphemism for dead and an adjective meaning overdue, can cause confusion in listeners. Euphemisms are also used to mitigate, soften or downplay the gravity of large-scale injustices, war crimes, or other events that warrant a pattern of avoidance in official statements or documents. For instance, one reason for the comparative scarcity of written evidence documenting the exterminations at Auschwitz , relative to their sheer number,

308-571: A euphemism for defecation in Pre-Germanic, as the Proto-Indo-European root * sḱeyd- , from which it was derived, meant 'to cut off'. Another example in American English is the replacement of " colored people " with " Negro " (euphemism by foreign language), which itself came to be replaced by either "African American" or "Black". Also in the United States the term "ethnic minorities" in

352-709: A foreign language may be imported for use as euphemism. For example, the French word enceinte was sometimes used instead of the English word pregnant ; abattoir for slaughterhouse , although in French the word retains its explicit violent meaning 'a place for beating down', conveniently lost on non-French speakers. Entrepreneur for businessman , adds glamour; douche (French for 'shower') for vaginal irrigation device; bidet ('little pony') for vessel for anal washing. Ironically, although in English physical " handicaps " are almost always described with euphemism, in French

396-456: A greater extent than in English, indicate respect with verb tenses and thus provide more scope for such dysphemism and require care by non-native speakers to avoid causing offence by unintentional dysphemism. This use of language may not constitute dysphemism if the choice of words used by the speaker is welcomed by the listener, such as a father who prefers being called by his given name as opposed to "Dad"/"Father". In that case it would appeal to

440-464: A speaker to use a name dysphemism or term of address dysphemism. Various slang terms that are dysphemistic in one culture may not be if they hold a different meaning in another culture. For instance, the word "fag" when used in American English is typically a slur against gay men . However, in British English, the word "fag" can be an inoffensive term used to refer to a cigarette, or, previously,

484-464: A word with both euphemistic and dysphemistic uses becomes restricted to the dysphemistic use alone. The term " euphemism treadmill ", coined by Steven Pinker , describes this process, in which terms with an emotionally charged referent that were once euphemisms become dysphemistic by association with the referent. " Nigger " would typically be dysphemistic; however, if used between African Americans it may be seen as neutral (although extremely casual) by

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528-527: Is "directives for the extermination process obscured in bureaucratic euphemisms". Another example of this is during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , where Russian President Vladimir Putin , in his speech starting the invasion, called the invasion a " special military operation ". Euphemisms are sometimes used to lessen the opposition to a political move. For example, according to linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann , Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used

572-838: Is a reference to the female Greek spirit of words of praise and positivity, etc. The term euphemism itself was used as a euphemism by the ancient Greeks ; with the meaning "to keep a holy silence" (speaking well by not speaking at all). Reasons for using euphemisms vary by context and intent. Commonly, euphemisms are used to avoid directly addressing subjects that might be deemed negative or embarrassing, such as death , sex , and excretory bodily functions. They may be created for innocent, well-intentioned purposes or nefariously and cynically, intentionally to deceive, confuse or deny . Euphemisms which emerge as dominant social euphemisms are often created to serve progressive causes. The Oxford University Press 's Dictionary of Euphemisms identifies "late" as an occasionally ambiguous term, whose nature as

616-517: Is apparently learned: children and animals are not put off by bodily effluvia (unless they have a foul smell). In a study done at Monash and La Trobe Universities in Melbourne , Australia, subjects rated bodily effluvia according to how revolting they found them. Feces, vomit, semen and menstrual blood were rated as most revolting while nail parings, breath, blood from a wound, hair clippings, and breast milk were rated as least revolting. This continuum of

660-408: Is considered dysphemistic, "people of color" does not carry the same connotations. The words " idiot " and " moron " were once polite terms to refer to people with mental disabilities, but they are now rarely used without dysphemism. Likewise, the word "retarded" was introduced as a new polite form once the previous terms became dysphemistic; since then, "retarded" has itself become dysphemistic. Often

704-410: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Euphemism A euphemism ( / ˈ juː f ə m ɪ z əm / YOO -fə-miz-əm ) is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that

748-478: Is used to replace profanities and blasphemies, diminishing their intensity. To alter the pronunciation or spelling of a taboo word (such as profanity ) to form a euphemism is known as taboo deformation , or a minced oath . Such modifications include: Euphemisms formed from understatements include asleep for dead and drinking for consuming alcohol. " Tired and emotional " is a notorious British euphemism for "drunk", one of many recurring jokes popularized by

792-554: The Greek elements dys δύς "mis-" and pheme φήμη "speech, voice, reputation" in the late 19th century. Related terms include malphemism (from the Latin malus "bad"), and cacophemism (from the Greek kakos κακός "bad"). A dysphemism is a marked form (standing out as unusual or divergent) which expresses a speaker's view or attitude towards the listener or group. Animal names are frequently used as dysphemistic epithets. By using one,

836-532: The Social Security Administration replaced the term "mental retardation" with " intellectual disability ". Since 2012, that change in terminology has been adopted by the National Institutes of Health and the medical industry at large. There are numerous disability-related euphemisms that have negative connotations . Dysphemism#Taboo terms The word dysphemism was composed from

880-492: The " euphemism treadmill ", as coined by Steven Pinker . For instance, the place of human defecation is a needy candidate for a euphemism in all eras. Toilet is an 18th-century euphemism, replacing the older euphemism house-of-office , which in turn replaced the even older euphemisms privy-house and bog-house . In the 20th century, where the old euphemisms lavatory (a place where one washes) and toilet (a place where one dresses ) had grown from widespread usage (e.g., in

924-598: The 2010s has been replaced by " people of color ". Venereal disease , which associated shameful bacterial infection with a seemingly worthy ailment emanating from Venus , the goddess of love, soon lost its deflective force in the post-classical education era, as "VD", which was replaced by the three-letter initialism "STD" (sexually transmitted disease); later, "STD" was replaced by "STI" (sexually transmitted infection). Intellectually-disabled people were originally defined with words such as "morons" or "imbeciles", which then became commonly used insults. The medical diagnosis

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968-453: The English word handicap is used as a euphemism for their problematic words infirmité or invalidité . Periphrasis , or circumlocution , is one of the most common: to "speak around" a given word, implying it without saying it. Over time, circumlocutions become recognized as established euphemisms for particular words or ideas. Bureaucracies frequently spawn euphemisms intentionally, as doublespeak expressions. For example, in

1012-668: The Philippine government's intention to label the Moro Islamic Liberation Front as a terrorist organization was indicated by the organization to be an escalation of hostilities. It was their belief that by calling their organization a terrorist organization they were being directly compared to Al-Qaeda, with whom they claim no connection. Naming groups in this way has been described, "A name will place emphasis on certain aspects and characteristics of an object, while neglecting or omitting other key areas". The interpretation and

1056-508: The United States) to being synonymous with the crude act they sought to deflect, they were sometimes replaced with bathroom (a place where one bathes), washroom (a place where one washes), or restroom (a place where one rests) or even by the extreme form powder room (a place where one applies facial cosmetics). The form water closet , often shortened to W.C. , is a less deflective form. The word shit appears to have originally been

1100-876: The illocutionary act of expressing a feeling or attitude. Bad or taboo words for many things far outnumber the "good" words. Hugh Rawson notices in his book Wicked Words that when looking at Roget's International Thesaurus, there are "89 synonyms for drunk, compared to 16 for sober, and 206 for bad person compared to 82 for good person. The synonyms for unchastity in the Thesaurus fill 140 lines, occupying exactly four times as much space as those for chastity. For unchaste woman, 34 synonyms are listed; for unchaste man, 24. No synonyms at all are given for chaste woman and chaste man." References to bodily excretions are often used in dysphemisms. Many communities historically believed that bodily effluvia such as feces , spittle , blood , nail-parings, and hair-clippings were cursed. Such revulsion

1144-436: The listener's memory and affect their interpretation of the given text. The process of pejoration leads to words that were once considered euphemisms to now be considered dysphemisms. In American culture , words like "colored" were once considered euphemisms, but have since been replaced by terms like "Black" and "African American". Sometimes slight modifications of dysphemisms can make them acceptable: while "colored people"

1188-400: The listener's positive face rather than damage it and would thus not be a dysphemism. Similarly, being more formal with someone than expected may be a type of dysphemism. For example, if a child usually calls their father "dad" or "papa", calling him "father" may be a way of offending or antagonizing him, by implying that he is merely his role, not someone the child is close with. Similarly, if

1232-448: The listener, depending on their social distance from the speaker and perceived status relative to the other party; see " nigga ". Reclamations of dysphemistic terms have been both successful and unsuccessful. The term " chicano " was a derogatory term and has been successfully reclaimed. Some terms like " Yankee " (for an American) or "punk" (for a late 1970s rocker), began as derogatory but were not considered such and adopted proudly by

1276-408: The named group. There have also been movements to reclaim words for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and otherwise non-heterosexual people, such as "queer", "fag" and "dyke". Other historic examples of dysphemism reclamation include the term Impressionism , which originated as a critical remark that " Monet 's Impression, Sunrise was not art, it was an impression", but was adopted to be the formal name of

1320-508: The neutral Hebrew lexical item פעימות peimót (literally 'beatings (of the heart)'), rather than נסיגה nesigá ('withdrawal'), to refer to the stages in the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank (see Wye River Memorandum ) , in order to lessen the opposition of right-wing Israelis to such a move. Peimót was thus used as a euphemism for 'withdrawal'. Euphemism may be used as

1364-640: The past, the US military used the term " sunshine units " for contamination by radioactive isotopes . The United States Central Intelligence Agency refers to systematic torture as " enhanced interrogation techniques ". An effective death sentence in the Soviet Union during the Great Purge often used the clause "imprisonment without right to correspondence ": the person sentenced would be shot soon after conviction. As early as 1939, Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich used

F word - Misplaced Pages Continue

1408-464: The production of a text (whether it be written, verbal, or multi-modal) depends on the previous knowledge and experience of the interpreter or producer. The individual compares matching features with representations stored in their long-term memory. Certain lexical items can be used to activate these representations, conjuring stereotypical images which then become the prototype in the listener's mind. Dysphemic terms activate negative stereotypes present in

1452-404: The same purpose: to call a person a berk sounds less offensive than to call a person a cunt , though berk is short for Berkeley Hunt , which rhymes with cunt . The use of a term with a softer connotation, though it shares the same meaning. For instance, screwed up is a euphemism for 'fucked up'; hook-up and laid are euphemisms for ' sexual intercourse '. Expressions or words from

1496-421: The satirical magazine Private Eye ; it has been used by MPs to avoid unparliamentary language . Pleasant, positive, worthy, neutral, or nondescript terms are often substituted for explicit or unpleasant ones, with many substituted terms deliberately coined by sociopolitical movements, marketing , public relations , or advertising initiatives, including: Some examples of Cockney rhyming slang may serve

1540-403: The speaker attempts to offend or antagonize the listener by targeting their humanity. Examples include " bitch ", "pig", "swine", "chicken", "weasel", "sheep", "snake", "rat", and "jackass". When a person uses another's name rather than an appropriate kinship term or title of address. The speaker uses a more casual or lower style than is appropriate given the social context. Many languages, to

1584-400: The style and was accepted by the artists themselves. Taboo terms are used as insults, epithets, and expletives because they damage the listener's face, which might destroy social harmony—especially if the speaker and listener are socially distant from each other. For this reason, terms of insult are socially taboo and dysphemistic. Breaking a social taboo can act as an emotional release, with

1628-526: The television series Daria Music [ edit ] "The F-Word", a song by Babybird from Bugged released in 2000 "The F Word", a song by Cannibal Ox from The Cold Vein released in 2001 Other media [ edit ] The F-Word (blog) , a UK-based feminist blog The F-Word (book) , a 1995 book by Jesse Sheidlower about English usage of the word "fuck" and translations in other languages The F-Word, an exhibition exploring personal tales of forgiveness and reconciliation from around

1672-558: The term Sonderbehandlung ("special treatment") to mean summary execution of persons viewed as "disciplinary problems" by the Nazis even before commencing the systematic extermination of the Jews . Heinrich Himmler , aware that the word had come to be known to mean murder, replaced that euphemism with one in which Jews would be "guided" (to their deaths) through the slave-labor and extermination camps after having been "evacuated" to their doom. Such

1716-498: The user wishes to downplay. Euphemisms may be used to mask profanity or refer to topics some consider taboo such as mental or physical disability, sexual intercourse, bodily excretions, pain, violence, illness, or death in a polite way. Euphemism comes from the Greek word euphemia ( εὐφημία ) which refers to the use of 'words of good omen'; it is a compound of eû ( εὖ ), meaning 'good, well', and phḗmē ( φήμη ), meaning 'prophetic speech; rumour, talk'. Eupheme

1760-460: The utterance is dysphemistic or not depends on the context of the utterance. For example, many X-phemisms regarding sexual intercourse could be considered euphemistic within peer groups yet dysphemistic in certain audiences. One might be more likely to say that one "got laid" to a friend than to one's grandparents. There may also be instances in which conflicting definitions of the same word may lead to unintentional dysphemism. The pejorative use of

1804-622: The word terrorist is a salient example, as definitions of the word terrorist may vary across cultures and even among individuals in the same culture. Typically, the word "terrorist" refers to one who uses violence and fear as a means to pursue political, religious or ideological aims. This definition is ambiguous, and many groups that refer to themselves as "freedom fighters", "revolutionaries", "rebels" or "liberators" are referred to as "terrorists" by dissenting parties. Labeling groups as terrorist draws associations with other groups labeled as such even when no direct connection might be present. In 2003,

F word - Misplaced Pages Continue

1848-563: The world by UK charity The Forgiveness Project Other uses [ edit ] FWord pointers , in computer programming Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title F word . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=F_word&oldid=1246113379 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1892-416: Was changed to "mentally retarded", which morphed into the pejorative, " retard ", against those with intellectual disabilities. To avoid the negative connotations of their diagnoses, students who need accommodations because of such conditions are often labeled as "special needs" instead, although the words "special" or "sped" (short for "special education") have long been schoolyard insults. As of August 2013,

1936-568: Was part of the formulation of Endlösung der Judenfrage (the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question"), which became known to the outside world during the Nuremberg Trials . Frequently, over time, euphemisms themselves become taboo words, through the linguistic process of semantic change known as pejoration , which University of Oregon linguist Sharon Henderson Taylor dubbed the " euphemism cycle " in 1974, also frequently referred to as

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