cock (from beau, fine,' or baud, 'bold'), and queer diminutives. Intimacy or familiarity explains these phenomena, and supplies the common term between abusive language and the dialect of tender fondness. On the one hand we have the familiarity of affection; on the other, the familiarity of contempt.1

Whenever a word comes to have a disagreeable sense, some synonym begins to take its place in ordinary language. The synonym may be a new word borrowed for the express purpose, but it is more commonly a word. already established, which may suffer a slight change of meaning, perhaps by being more generalized. Thus, when knave began to acquire a disagreeable signification, servant, from the French, took its place. Servant was already in the language, but was a somewhat more dignified and special word than knave. In modern usage, with the spread of democratic feeling, there has been, particularly in America, a tendency to abandon this word servant in favor of help, or domestic, or some other less plain-spoken term.2 This conducts us directly to euphemism, which will be treated in the following chapter.

1 Compare fellow (p. 287), in which the influences here described have made themselves felt.

2 The history of help in this sense is fully discussed by Albert Matthews in the Transactions of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, V, 225 ff.

CHAPTER XXI

EUPHEMISM

DECENCY and propriety are powerful forces in changing the meanings of words, or in driving them out of use. They are also very ancient forces. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a state of society so low as to be exempt from their operations. Prudery may be ridiculous, but it is not unnatural. It is merely the self-conscious expression of tendencies that have affected language from the remotest times, and that have their roots in the most primitive philosophy of the human race. The propriety of the Hottentot may differ from the white man's propriety, but, such as it is, he feels under bonds to observe it, and the bonds are quite as stringent as those which regulate our own society. In particular, he is very loath to call a spade a spade.'

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The origins of euphemism, then, are to be sought not in our complex civilization, but in those conceptions of language which are common to men in every stage of culture. We instinctively avoid the mention of death, and take refuge in such vague or softened phrases as he has passed away,' he is gone,' 'the deceased,' 'the departed,' 'the late Mr. Smith.' The savage feels still greater reluctance. Sometimes he even refuses to utter the name of a person who is no longer living, or to give it to a child, so that the name actually becomes obsolete among the tribe. This

agreement between the civilized man and the savage points to the solution of the whole problem. It is unlucky to speak of death or misfortune, for, in all men's minds, there is a mysterious but indissoluble connection between the thing and the word. To pronounce the word may bring the thing to pass. Here we are on familiar ground. The 'power of the word,' as we have already seen,1 is a conception that appeals with equal force to the Stoic philosopher (with his etymon) and the medicine-man with his rigmarole of senseless charms.

Thus euphemism becomes immediately intelligible. Nothing that the savage does or says is free from ceremonial restrictions. The most innocent acts or speeches may be fraught with tremendous consequences if they violate a taboo or run counter to a religious requirement. Such and such words are allowable under one set of circumstances, but forbidden under another. The habit of linguistic caution is thus formed, and what we call decency of language is the last result.

The Australian aborigines are very near the bottom of the social scale. Yet they have many rigid rules of decency and propriety in speech. They feel no hesitation, to be sure, in speaking of all sorts of things which we never mention in polite society. Yet they have two words for almost every such idea, and they shudder at the thought of employing the wrong synonym in a mixed company. In short, the language of these naked savages is provided with all the apparatus of an elaborated euphemism.

The Greek word euphemism itself has ceremonial connections. It comes from ev (eu), 'well,' and pnuí (phēmí), 'to speak.' Evonμeîтe (euphemeîte), 'speak fair,' the im1 See pp. 228 ff.

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perative of the corresponding verb, was the solemn warning to the worshipper not to disturb the sacrifice by speaking, lest he might utter some ill-omened word. The Romans had a similar formula, -favete linguis, favor with your tongues.' 'Utter nothing ominous' would have been itself an ominous utterance. Even 'keep silence' was too suggestive of evil speech.

The superstitious notion involved in these formulæ manifests itself in all languages. Absit omen, said the Romans, when they found it necessary to mention an unlucky or disastrous thing. God save the mark!'1 is the nurse's interjection when she describes the wound in Tybalt's breast and touches her own body in significant gesture. Our 'Don't speak of it!' gives vague expression to the same feeling.

Death and disaster, then, afford a starting-point for our study of euphemism. We have already mentioned a number of euphemistic synonyms, like depart, decease, and pass away. Compare the end, dissolution, expire, go to a better world, last sickness (or illness), breathe one's last, lifeless, the silent majority, gone before, fall asleep, among the missing, he lost fifty men, he is no more, he cannot recover, he fell in battle, he was lost at sea.2 The French feu (as in feu roi, the late king') is for fatutus, from fatum (cf. 'to meet one's fate'). There are like synonyms for kill: as, 'to make way with '3

1 Nobody knows the origin of this phrase, but its use is clear enough. The many explanations suggested for its origin are all more or less clever guesses.

2 The habit of using trivial or slang phrases for death is a coarser expression of the same feeling.

3 Compare L. tollo, as in the punning epigram on Nero's murdering his mother (Suetonius, Nero, 39) : —

Quis negat Aeneae magna de stirpe Neronem?

Sustulit hic matrem, sustulit ille patrem.

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(or 'make away'), 'to put away,' to finish,' 'settle,' 'do for,' or 'remove,' 'he must disappear' (for 'be slain'), and so on. The use of a borrowed word may serve the purpose of veiling the truth, as mortal or fatal for deadly'; post mortem, obituary. The last-mentioned word refers us back to a well-known Latin euphemism, obiit, for obiit diem supremam, 'he has met his last day.' Compare post obit (for post obitum), an agreement to pay money after some one's death. Suicide (from L. sui, of one's self,' and -cidium, 'killing,' as in homicidium; caedo, slay') is a milder term than Hamlet's self-slaughter. And felo de se is also felt as less plain-spoken, though in fact it embodies the savage legal doctrine that a suicide is a felon against himself' (or 'in his own case').

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Misfortune, mischance, accident (literally happening'; accidere, to befall '), casualty (L. casus, 'falling,' 'chance'), disaster (bad aspect of the planets'), injury (literally 'injustice,' 'wrong'), ruin (L. ruo, to fall'), are all euphemistic in origin, though some of them have ceased to be so felt. Ill, as applied to sickness, means literally 'uncomfortable' (cf. disease), but has come to have a much more serious sense.1 Serious itself is often euphemistic when applied to illness.

So far the superstitious sources of euphemism have revealed themselves unmistakably. We are justified, therefore, in assuming a similar origin when, as in some of the examples that we must now examine, no obvious fear of ill luck attends the practice. The habit of employing softened or veiled expressions, once established, spreads to all the relations of life, and may at any moment be intensified by

1 Our ancestors used sick for all kinds of disease, grave or trivial, and ill for the discomfort or distress attending them. 'Sick and ill' was a common phrase.