A couple of euphemisms from my childhood

[nancylebov]

When I was a kid, I'd sometimes hear a person described as "full of soup" as though it was a bad thing, and I couldn't figure it out because what could be bad about being full of soup.

Much later, I deduced that it was a euphemism for "full of shit", though I think the tone was milder than it would be for the original phrase.

There was also mention of an "effing knife" in a Max Shulman novel (a satirist from generations ago, pretty much forgotten, I think). I thought it was some technical sort of a knife, but eventually, it occurred me that it was another euphemism.

The modern taste for actually using curse words has removed a cause for minor ingenuity.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

I remember Max Shulman. I loved Rally round the Flag, Boys and Anyone Got a Match?

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Actually, I was thinking that you might be the only one on my flist who remembered Shulman-- and thanks for the titles, since Anyone Got a Match? is the one I read when I was a kid.

I might reread some Shulman to see how his work holds up.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

I sorta-recognized the name, but couldn't link it to anything till I saw supergee's comment. Yeah.

[demonspawnmom.livejournal.com]

I read "Rally Round the Flag, Boys" years and years ago.

[terriwells.livejournal.com]

I paused to wonder what kind of technical sort of knife an "effing knife" could be, and then remembered that "flense" starts with "f." I think I just disgusted myself.

[avram]

It could be a branded multitool that the Electronic Frontier Foundation gives away as a donation premium.

[terriwells.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hadn't thought of that! I like yours better.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Two such from my childhood, used primarily by my mother: "sugarfoot" and "for crying in the sink". (The latter I recognized early as "for Christ's sake"; the former took me much longer.)

[madfilkentist]

A song of mine, based on The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, has the line "That F.N. ship is coming in to kill." That's not a euphemism for anything, just an abbreviation for Federated Nations, but I can't help how people might interpret it. :)

[chomiji]

Cherryh's Alliance-Union characters sometimes use "effing" as a curse word/intensifier, too.

I still tend to say things like "blipping" and "crud" when I'm not sure about my audience.

The prissy girls in my high school sometimes used to curse "Oh, sugar!" I think that one's fairly common across the South.

[bugsybanana.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing a documentary short years ago where the filmmaker, who was Jewish, explored his feelings about Jesus. His family, when they had reason to refer to Jesus Christ, euphemized him as "Jersey City." That has stuck with me even though I don't remember anything else about the film.