Talk:dysphemism

Examples

How is "to take the hot seat" a dysphemism for capital punishment? - I see it as a clear euphemism. - A literal hot seat might burn my behinds, while capital punishment makes me cease to exist. - On my non-suicidal days I'd always prefer the former. --91.39.75.239 10:03, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

The slanginess of it might make it seem more offensive, as if you are making a joke about the person's death. Equinox ◑ 11:40, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

If you put it that way, I can see how one could perceive it that way. - But I still think it might be confusing for a person that actually encounters the word dysphemism for the first time and looks it up here. - Would you agree that it's OK to remove that particular example? --91.39.75.239 16:48, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

Personally I'd be okay with removing it, since I think we have enough other (clearer) examples. Even "fry" doesn't refer just to capital punishment (as we seem to be saying), but specifically the electric chair. Equinox ◑ 20:39, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

Did it. --91.39.73.195 23:31, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

possible German translation

w:Amish lists Schandename as a "name of disgrace", which seems to me like it would fit here. I havent added it though because the word occurs nowhere on the German wiktionary, even as a redlink, so it's possible it's not used in contemporary German. —Soap— 07:21, 4 March 2020 (UTC)

includes puns?

I wonder if a dysphemism can be a pun. We have a possible very old example listed at w:Beelzebub#Hebrew_Bible where Baalzebub may have originated as a distortion of Baalzebul; one name is neutral and one is offensive. Modern examples could be taken from the IT industry, ... I remember from about twenty years ago hearing about "Slowaris" and "Windoze". Almost every name was pervertible: Linux became Lunix, and so on, occasionally used ironically by supporters of Linux. Politics has a lot of this too, which is an area Im more familiar with than software now. Fox News ---> Faux News, MSNBC ---> PMSNBC, etc. —Soap— 07:25, 4 March 2020 (UTC)