Etymology Word of the Week – As some of you know, in addition to working in the Admissions Office, I also teach Latin at Saint Ignatius and am something of a "word nerd." Thus, each week, I’ll sneak a vocabulary word (sometimes derived from Latin, sometimes not) into the e-blast. Here, then. is this week’s edition of the Etymology Word of the Week.
Euphemism
Definition: “The substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt.”
Origin/Derivation: From the Greek roots eu- meaning “good, well” and pheme/phanai meaning “speaking, saying, telling.”
Related Words/Phrases: blasphemy (“hurtful speech”), Eucharist, Eumenides (from Greek mythology, a.k.a. the Furies), eulogy (“good speech”), eucalyptus, eugenics (“good birth/genes”), euphoria, euthanasia (“good death”)
Image Caption: Which phrase sounds nicer, “garbage dump” or “landfill”?
(All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)