This week’s theme
There’s an antonym for it

This week’s words
eustress
nullibiety
excarnation
dysphemism
nocebo

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(DIS-fuh-miz-em)

MEANING:

noun: The substitution of a harsher, deprecating, or offensive term in place of a relatively neutral term.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek dys- (bad) + -phemism (as in euphemism). Earliest documented use: 1884. The opposite is euphemism.

NOTES:

Examples include “death tax” for “estate tax” and “snail mail” for “paper mail”.

USAGE:

“If my soft touch there with ‘people seeking refuge’ seems too forgiving, take your pick of the wide array of dysphemisms already available for those fleeing violence and terror, from ‘anchor babies’ to ‘illegal aliens’ to the more grammatically efficient ‘illegals’-- which crams ‘them’ into a space-saving adjective.”
Michael Andor Brodeur; United States of Euphemism: ICE, Border Separations, and How Americans Say the Unspeakable; Boston Globe (Massachusetts); Jun 24, 2018.

See more usage examples of dysphemism in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: