“To a linguist, the phenomenon is familiar: the euphemism treadmill. People invent new "polite" words to refer to emotionally laden or distasteful things, but the euphemism becomes tainted by association and the new one that must be found acquires its own negative connotations. "Water closet" becomes "toilet" (originally a term for any body care, as in "toilet kit"), which becomes "bathroom," which becomes "rest room," which becomes "lavatory." … The euphemism treadmill shows that concepts, not words, are in charge. Give a concept a new name, and the name becomes colored by the concept; the concept does not become freshened by the name.”

We will know we have achieved equality and mutual respect when names for minorities stay put.
The game of the name, Baltimore Sun, 1994-04-06, http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1994_04_03_newyorktimes.pdf, 1994-04-03, 2011-01-19 http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1994-04-06/news/1994096202_1_dutch-words-language,

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To a linguist, the phenomenon is familiar: the euphemism treadmill. People invent new "polite" words to refer to emotio…" by Steven Pinker?
Steven Pinker photo
Steven Pinker 33
psychologist, linguist, author 1954

Related quotes

Rick Riordan photo

“I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.”

Variant: I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing...
Source: The Lightning Thief

Heather Brooke photo

“National security is becoming the new word of God to which all must submit in blind obedience.”

Heather Brooke (1970) American journalist

Pages 236-237.
The Revolution Will Be Digitised: Dispatches From the Information War, 1st Edition
Context: Why, then, are the world's governments intent on controlling and regulating the Internet? Free speech is most threatening to authoritarian systems such as autocracies, militaries, the police and security services. Security services in principle exist for our protection but that is so only when they are accountable to the public for their considerable power. We are seeing a push by these agencies to move beyond the rule of law, to be accountable to no one but themselves. National security is becoming the new word of God to which all must submit in blind obedience. The decisions made, the liberties eroded, the crimes committed in the name of national security cannot be challenged because the information on which they are based remains secret.

“A childhood can be judged sheltered or not according to which was learned first, the four-letter word or the euphemism.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Dag Hammarskjöld photo

“The Internet has become the phenomenon of the new century. It has become the voice of the people in the first genuine experiment in democracy yet conducted in America.”

Gerry Spence (1929) American lawyer

Source: Give Me Liberty! (1998), Ch. 21 : The Theft of Our Voice, p. 258
Context: The Internet has become the phenomenon of the new century. It has become the voice of the people in the first genuine experiment in democracy yet conducted in America. It stands ready to serve every facet, every faction. It creates neighbors where once we were foreigners. It carries our individual voices to new communities formed through the magic of electronics.
The electronic village has been born, and the village voice, via the internet is being heard.

Max Horkheimer photo
Peter Kreeft photo

“Kreeft calls the word "interesting": "that all-purpose meaningless euphemism."”

Peter Kreeft (1937) American philosopher

The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind the Lord of the Rings, Ignatius Press (2005), p. 9

Annie Besant photo

“Evil is only imperfection, that which is not complete, which is becoming, but has not yet found its end.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

The immediate future: Lectures delivered in Queen's Hall, London, 1911 http://books.google.co.in/books?id=VGNbAAAAMAAJ, p. 31

John Lancaster Spalding photo

Related topics