#jezyki #lingwistyka #etymologia #ciekawostkietymologiczne
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Więcej: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphemism
Frequently, over time, euphemisms themselves become taboo words, through the linguistic process of semantic change known as pejoration, which University of Oregon linguist Sharon Henderson Taylor dubbed the "euphemism cycle" in 1974,[25] also frequently referred to as the "euphemism treadmill". For instance, the place of human defecation is a needy candidate for a euphemism in all eras. Toilet is an 18th-century euphemism, replacing the older euphemism house-of-office, which in turn replaced the even older euphemisms privy-house and bog-house.[26] In the 20th century, where the old euphemisms lavatory (a place where one washes) and toilet (a place where one dresses[27]) had grown from widespread usage (e.g., in the United States) to being synonymous with the crude act they sought to deflect, they were sometimes replaced with bathroom (a place where one bathes), washroom (a place where one washes), or restroom (a place where one rests) or even by the extreme form powder room (a place where one applies facial cosmetics).[_citation needed_] The form water closet, often shortened to W.C., is a less deflective form.[_citation needed_] The word shit appears to have originally been a euphemism for defecation in Pre-Germanic, as the Proto-Indo-European root *sḱeyd-, from which it was derived, meant 'to cut off'.[28]
Another example in American English is the replacement of "colored people" with "Negro" (euphemism by foreign language), which itself came to be replaced by either "African American" or "Black".[29] Also in the United States the term "ethnic minorities" in the 2010s has been replaced by "people of color".[29]
Venereal disease, which associated shameful bacterial infection with a seemingly worthy ailment emanating from Venus, the goddess of love, soon lost its deflective force in the post-classical education era, as "VD", which was replaced by the three-letter initialism "STD" (sexually transmitted disease); later, "STD" was replaced by "STI" (sexually transmitted infection).[30]
Intellectually-disabled people were originally defined with words such as "morons" or "imbeciles", which then became commonly used insults. The medical diagnosis was changed to "mentally retarded", which morphed into a pejorative against those with intellectual disabilities. To avoid the negative connotations of their diagnoses, students who need accommodations because of such conditions are often labeled as "special needs" instead, although the words "special" or "sped" (short for "special education") have long been schoolyard insults.[31][_better source needed_] As of August 2013, the Social Security Administration replaced the term "mental retardation" with "intellectual disability".[32] Since 2012, that change in terminology has been adopted by the National Institutes of Health and the medical industry at large.[33] There are numerous disability-related euphemisms that have negative connotations.