Definition:
The substitution of a more offensive or disparaging word or phrase for one considered less offensive. The opposite of euphemism. Though often meant to shock or offend, dysphemisms may also serve as in-group markers to signal closeness. Adjective: dysphemistic. See also cacophemism.
Etymology:
From the Greek, "a non word"Examples and Observations:
- When applied to people, animal names are usually dysphemisms: coot, old bat, pig, chicken, snake, and bitch, for example.
- "The Holocaust (the dysphemism chosen by Jewish historians to replace the Nazis' ghastly euphemism, The Final Solution) and the Nuclear Holocaust--the one in the past, the other in the future--were to hang over the next half-century like a mushroom cloud."
(Philip French, "Hollywood and the Holocaust," The Guardian, Feb. 13, 1994) - "When we think of euphemisms, we think of words that are substituted because their connotations are less distressing than the words they replace. In slang you frequently have the opposite phenomenon, dysphemism, where a relatively neutral word is replaced with a harsher, more offensive one. Such as calling a cemetery a 'boneyard.' Referring to electrocution as 'taking the hot seat' would be another. . . . Even more dysphemistic would be 'to fry.'"
(Interview with J. E. Lighter, American Heritage, Oct. 2003) - "A jocular approach to death is only dysphemistic if the Hearer can be expected to regard it as offensive. For instance, if a doctor were to inform close family that their loved one has pegged out during the night, it would normally be inappropriate, insensitive, and unprofessional (i.e., dysphemistic). Yet given another context with quite a different set of interlocutors, the same expression could just as well be described as cheerfully euphemistic."
(Keith Allan and Kate Burridge, Euphemism and Dysphemism, Oxford Univ. Press, 1991)
Pronunciation: DIS-fuh-miz-im
Also Known As: cacophemism
