Talk:Dysphemism
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[edit] Hyperbole
Hmm... I'd have said that in this usage 'slaughter' and 'annihilate' would be more simply viewed as hyperbole.
Could euphemisms, then, be considered as hypobole?
--I certainly think that both euphemisms might be a subset of understatement and dysphemisms a form of hyperbole, and I think using those examples in this article is acceptable. Very interesting read, by the way.128.227.95.149 23:31, 18 February 2006 (UTC)
- I'd agree that slaughter and annihilate are hyperbole. Andjam 04:29, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Cacos vs Dys
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dysphemism&diff=17760266&oldid=15939368
I already reverted the stripping of entity references, but I don't know about the content changes (s/caco/cacos/ and s/non/bad/). did the Greek language really have two words that both translate to 'bad' in the English language?
- 'Caco-' is more correct. The prefix 'dys-' generally means 'not', just like the latin 'dis-'. The opposite of "eu-" (=good, well) is "kako-" (=bad, evil). mholland 01:40, 7 August 2005 (UTC)
- Actually, never mind; the OED has 'dysphemism'. But it gives the etymology as a derivation from 'euphemism' - whoever came up with 'dysphemism' was clearly a lazy scholar at his Greek. Euphemism/dysphemism also fits better by analogy with (e)utopia/dystopia. OED has also got 'cacotopia' but the only reference is Bentham. I think leave it alone because even if caco- is better Greek, the coinage was English. mholland 03:15, 7 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit] "Sucks" as mainstream slang
When "The Simpsons" had Bart saying about a school play, "I can't believe it, but this both sucks and blows." then I knew 'sucks' was close to acceptability. When I heard Alex Trebec quoting the above line verbatim on Jeopardy, I knew it had arrived. Actually, I was more surprised that he would say "blows" since I thought that had a lot of ground to cover yet. Sorry, I don't have a reference for either one, but if someone can find one, it would add a cite. 69.181.66.75 08:46, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
- "I didn't think it was physically possible, but this both sucks and blows" is the exact quote. It's deliberately risqué because it clearly alludes to the origin of both phrases (it's certainly physically possible...) If that passes muster on mainstream television, then "this sucks" and "this blows" certainly do. 82.92.119.11 19:54, 8 April 2006 (UTC)
[edit] sucks and jerk
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- Maybe other examples might be found? "Sucks eggs" with much the same usage, but certainly not obscene, comes decades before the fellatio-reference. Certainly most people think of the "sucks dick" phrase as lying behind the usage, but there's some chronological overlap that muddles the example. More: I'm not at all sure that "jerk" is connected with "jerk off" (don't have my Partridge dictionary with me...) Without documentation (which is very tough to find for terms like this) it's easy to fall into presumptive but unwarranted etymologies. Adamdavis
- I've heard "sucks eggs" as a pejorative phrase before, though it may be on the border between sexual and nonsexual: On one hand, some British dialects use "eggs" as slang for "testicles"; to speakers of those dialects, "sucking eggs" might still suggest fellatio. On the other hand, some animal species (such as snakes and weasels) do feed on eggs by sucking them. Those animals often developed bad reputations in European cultures; therefore, "sucking eggs" might equate some bad person with predatory vermin.
- As for a purely nonsexual "sucks" phrase, I have heard "sucks pond scum" used informally (mostly in writing humorous rating/review articles). However, that phrase doesn't appear as often as "sucks eggs" or "sucks" with no object; I assume it was coined after the sexual connotation of "sucks" had weakened. --Ingeborg S. Nordén 00:55, 26 July 2006 (UTC)
According to the OED, "jerk" does not come from "jerk-off". It is a shortened form of "jerkwater", as in "jerkwater train", a train on a branch line of the railway, and hence, anything small, insignificant, or inferior. (The name for the train itself arose "because train crews, when the water got low, often had to stop by a creek, form a bucket brigade and jerk water from the stream to fill the tender tank.") I have accordingly deleted the sentence about "jerk".
