Knowing when and how to use your new vocabulary words is important. There will be times when bringing out all of your best and most descriptive words is helpful, such as when you’re creating a presentation or proposal that needs to catch someone’s eye – a potential employer, perhaps, or a group of clients or investors. Of course, there are also times when you’ll need to strip your speech to its bare essentials, such as when you’re writing instructions or task lists for a diverse set of readers and want to make sure everyone understands what you mean. In this case, you’ll want to pick the words that will convey your ideas clearly, using terms with precise meanings.

The English language also has many ways to use words in an imprecise manner. Idiom, metaphor, and euphemism are all ways to say things indirectly. In previous posts, we’ve talked about idiom (example: “it’s raining cats and dogs”) and metaphor (example: “her eyes were stars glimmering behind the dark veil of her long hair”). A euphemism is another way to refer to something without naming it directly. The word comes from the Greek roots eu (“good”) and pheme (“speaking”) and means the act of referring to something that might cause discomfort or distress to the listener in such a way that you do not say the name of that thing out loud. For example, people have long been uncomfortable with the thought of death, which is why we use euphemisms like passed away, departed, gave up the ghost, or (more casually) kicked the bucket, instead of saying “died.” Other topics that generate many euphemisms are sex and pregnancy – quite a few not suitable for this family website, as you can imagine! When we teach children about the facts of life, we talk to them about the birds and the bees. Teenagers fool around and a boy might get to second base, but if he scores, there’s a risk that the girl might soon be in the family way, expecting, with a bun in the oven.

You’ll find euphemisms in business and government as well. You can buy a pre-owned car (it’s not a “used” car, please!) or get a job as a sanitation engineer (no one is a “janitor” any more). But stay out of trouble, or the authorities might bring you in and try some enhanced interrogation techniques (formerly known as “torture”)!