“[At] one time, Patagonian toothfish was freely available to anyone because no one wanted to eat it,” Keyes says, “until a very clever entrepreneurial sea importer renamed it Chilean sea bass.”
Current events have also provided ample fodder for euphemisms — think “wardrobe malfunction,” “wide stance” or “hiking the Appalachian trail,” a phrase made famous by South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s infamous Argentine escapade.