Euphemania: Our Love Affair With Euphemisms

June 16th, 2011

Ralph Keyes’ Euphemania: Our Love Affair With Euphemisms (Little, Brown and Co., 2010) will delight anyone who loves words, their origins and the way that they reflect cultural intentions, subterfuges and biases. Keyes defines euphemisms as words or phrases substituted for ones that make us uneasy: sexual activity, body parts and secretions, war and killing, money, physical and mental disabilities, even food (Rocky Mountain oysters, anyone?). And, of course, politicians employ them. Nevada’s own Senate Taxation Committee has now morphed into a Revenue Committee. Enjoy!

Selected by Jeanne Goodrich, executive director for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.