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 I have been struck in recent years by the increased use of euphemisms in the media, in entertainment and in other public conversations. There are several possible reasons for this- obscuring an actual meaning, lessening an impact, affecting a verbal flourish. Some of these uses are comical, others just plain bizarre.

For instance, the police no longer look for a suspect when a crime is committed; they instead search for a “person of interest.” I am confused here: I hear this as “interesting person” and I immediately begin considering the people I would love to have a conversation with- the novelist Elmore Leonard, perhpas, or the columnist Charlie Pierce- you know, interesting people.

We no longer have sex with each other, either; we “sleep with” one another. Gone are all the other terms we have employed, colorful and polite- bang, screw, f**k, fornicate and myriad more. It always sounds discordant to me when I hear a character is a TV crime drama state that they were “sleeping with so-and-so.” I guess that’s because of my propensity to take the phrase literally. In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that I have many times slept with persons of all genders without banging, screwing, fornicating or having sex, just sleeping.

I learned a new one today from the economist Stephanie Kelton (@deficitowl) who tweeted “German officials drop harsh “austerity” in favor of the kinder, gentler “growth-friendly consolidation”.  This brought the following reply from @BruceMcF: “Cause when you lose your job to growth friendly consolidation instead of austerity, it’s much easier to pay your bills”.

Anyway, for all you people of interest, it might be a fun project to collect all the euphemisms we encounter in the public space. You can post them here (you need to click Log In and register as a User- it’s free), or click Contact and send them to me. With an enthusiastic response, we should be able to compile an “enumeration of alternative descriptive terms.”