Dysphemism

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Look up dysphemism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

In language, dysphemism,^a malphemism,^b and cacophemism^c refer to the usage of an intentionally harsh (rather than polite) word or expression; roughly the opposite of euphemism.^[1]

Referring to the paper version of an online magazine as the "dead tree edition" or conventional postal mail as "snail-mail" are examples of dysphemisms.

Examples and Usage

Many dysphemisms are pejoratives, e.g., referring to the police as the "pigs", or referring to homosexual men as "fags". Others are playful or slang terms, e.g., referring to a cigarette as a "cancer stick" or "coffin nail".

There are two kinds of dysphemisms (and euphemisms). They are conventional and general. ^[2]

• Conventional dysphemisms do not describe the person's feelings toward a subject, and are more about politeness and casualness than context. (e.g., "crap" for defecate, "dick" for penis, "fat" for overweight, etc.) Profanity is a form of this.
• General dysphemisms describe a person's attitude toward something. ("terrorist" vs. "freedom fighter", "weird" vs. "unique", "egghead" vs. "genius", "ripped off of" vs "inspired by", "henchman" vs "associate", "dead-tree" vs "hard copy", etc)

Referring to a person by an animal name, such as pig, cow, snake, chicken, donkey, ass, or bitch, is almost always a dysphemism, and the last two terms are often considered profane. ^[3]

Using an adjective as a name, e.g. "cripple" for "has a crippling injury", "White" for "White person", or "retard" for "retarded", is generally more offensive, so it is considered a dysphemism.

Using the name of a medical condition, mental disorder, physical injury, sexuality, or social class to describe a more generic issue is also a dysphemism. Examples include saying that an effeminate man is "gay", referring to a ridiculous person or action as "retarded", saying that an overly cautious person "has OCD", or other exaggerations. Similarly, using a generic term for a disabled or different person is offensive. "Spastic" is an offense to individuals living with cerebral palsy, but is okay in the context of hyperactivity (except in British English, where it is still very offensive).

A "euphemistic dysphemism" is a term that has characteristics of both a euphemism and a dysphemism, e.g., "drain the main vein" for "urinate".

See also

• Euphemism
• Hyperbole
• Loaded language
• Metaphor
• Pejorative
• Satiric misspelling

Notes

• ^a dysphemism - from the Greek dys δύς "mis-" and pheme φήμη "reputation"
• ^b malphemism - from the Latin malus "bad"
• ^c cacophemism - from the Greek kakos κακός "bad"

References

Further reading

• Allen, Keith; Burridge, Kate (1991). Euphemism & Dysphemism: Language Used As Shield and Weapon. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-7351-0288-0. 
• Cumming, Susanna (2003). "Euphemism and Dysphemism". http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/cumming/ling50/euphemism+dysphemism.htm.