Unmentionables: From Family Jewels to Friendly Fire: What We Say Instead of What We Mean by Ralph Keyes

Unmentionables: From Family Jewels to Friendly Fire: What We Say Instead of What We Mean Reviews

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  Nurture Waratah

  This was an incredibly interesting book on the reasons and motivation behind humanities constant urge to euphemize.
  
  It was particularly interesting to learn just how old are some of today's euphemisms, and just how many 'words' originated as euphemisms (such as bear, for instance). Many of the newly emerging euphemisms can be just as amusing as those which are outdated. One such example is 'rebooting the ovarian operating system', a euphemism for menstruation.
  
  Just as interesting as the actual euphemisms, however, are the variety of reasons for using them. This is definitely a book I would recommend to a friend.
• 
  David

  Maybe the book could have been called "Euphemisms" but the title would not be quite so eye catching. Enjoyable fun light read that supports the notion that people on mass are strange. The art of making simple communication far more complex than it should be.