According to literary legend, Samuel Johnson, who wrote the first English dictionary, was fastidious about proper word usage. The story is that he was riding in a street car when a woman seated next ...

“Where is the euphemism?” A college friend used to ask this question to point out the silliness of calling a toilet a bathroom. Euphemism in ordinary speech may be amusing, stilted, or polite, but in ...

Earlier this year, I attended the funeral of a dear friend who had died of cancer just before Christmas. The service took place in a north London crematorium and contained several achingly moving ...

MODERN American speech, while not always clear or correct or turned with much style, is supposed to be uncommonly frank. Witness the current explosion of four-letter words and the explicit discussion ...

Putting a good spin on things, verbally, can be a habit, a necessary business skill, or a vocation unto itself. Take a look at euphemism, who it hurts and who it benefits, and how different cultures, ...

Patronela Tshuma exposed the disconnect between policy and lived reality in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health and ...

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