Encyclopedia > Dysphemism

  Article Content

Dysphemism

In language, both dysphemism and cacophemism are rough opposites of euphemism, meaning the usage of an intentionally harsh word or expression instead of a polite one.

The latter is generally used more often in the sense of something deliberately offensive, while the former can be either offensive or merely humorously deprecating. Examples include the American military's use of "shit on a shingle" for their common breakfast of creamed chipped beef on toast, or "dead tree edition" for the paper version of an online magazine.

Oddly, some humorous expressions can be both euphemistic and dysphemistic depending on context: for example "spank the monkey" might be used as either a softer alternative to "masturbate", or as a more deliberately provocative one depending on the audience.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
East Marion, New York

... household size is 2.30 and the average family size is 2.79. In the town the population is spread out with 18.5% under the age of 18, 4.4% from 18 to 24, 20.6% from 25 ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 23.6 ms