NTC's Dictionary of Euphamisms

Bertram, Ann. NTC Publishing Group, Chicago. 1998. subtitle: the ost practical guide to unraveling euphamisms.

The book's promoted as being helpful to ESL students, and that would be its greatest strength, most definitely - also, I like the way that they have included more than just the "duhr-ty" words, (even though those are the most popular!) So it's good giving an overview on that respect.

However, the edition is really replete with many so-called "Politically Correct" connotives, many of which have frankly never caught on, and it's possible that a person could consider this edition, ahem, out of date

(which is really a shame, considering that it's only 8 years old. Nice comment on the condition of our culture, isn't it?


consider this: this sentence that I'm writing will be out of date the moment I attach a period to the end of it.)



Now it's old news. Frighenting, isn't it?


Anyway, back to the book: it purports to be slightly tongue-in-cheek about the PC terms, but even so, it puts a lot in there. I mean, come on! "Nondisabled" ?? means "able bodied" but it's a great commentary on our language, in that we are SOO desiring of making all people feel included that we will cast a FOCUS upon their differences in order to set the non-related group against it in order to increase the sense of inclusion. That is: call attention to it, thereby setting up the primary group as the somehow lesser group, in order to make the disenfranchised the primary.

whoa. I sound like a real jerk there, I know, but you kind of see the point. Nondisabled is like calling all blondes "nonbrunette" or all righthanded people "non-southpaws."

While I believe firmly that America should be all-inclusive, I also believe that we should stop making our language sillier than it already is. Let's make these words and use them in comedy shows, but not make dictionaries replete with them, OK?

Actually, I've spent too long on this one book and kind of gotten off on several different tangents and haven't really gotten to any one point, so I'll just leave you with this: even though this book indicates that it thinks PC is silly, it's really rather tame on the subject.

All in all, good for a few phrases. Like I said, I'd recommend it for ESL and those who study the history of the English language in by-decade increments.

VG