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Euphemisms make the unpalatable more palatable. People use euphemisms chiefly to conceal feared things, for example, death; to conceal the reality of unthinkable crimes; to conceal references to sex, body parts and fluids, and excrement; and to elevate otherwise lowly sounding or derogatory occupational titles and institutional names. For instance, there are hundreds of euphemisms used daily for to die, a few of which are pass on/away, go to one's final rest, and depart/depart this life. Similarly, water landing is often used by airlines in lieu of the terrifying on-water ditching. Two of the most notorious euphemisms for genocide are, of course, the Final Solution and ethnic cleansing. Euphemistic references to sex and physiology are legion: sleep with for have sex with and break wind for fart are typical, as is social disease for sexually transmitted disease. Euphemisms that elevate the language of occupational titles include, for example, sanitation engineer for garbage collector, and those that elevate rather harsh-sounding institutional names include correctional facility for prison. The capacity of a euphemism to conceal tends to diminish over the years, as it becomes more and more closely associated with its referent, and if the taboo against talking about the referent remains in force, a fresh euphemism needs to be found for it. For instance, toilet was once a euphemism (it had previously referred to a dressing room with washing facilities), but it has long since become a plainly understood term for "a place of urination and defecation," a term now needing its own euphemism: rest room and powder room for the room itself, and commode for the plumbing fixture.
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