Speaking of euphemisms, do you guys know of any common dysphemisms?

Here's an example from me

If you want to de-normalize a nation's state/government, call them

::: spoiler spoiler a regime


:::

Other examples include: hospital --> loony bin

Edit: the more I think about it, the more I realize dysphemism are insults?

68 points · 27 comments · view on lemmy.world

27 Comments

pr06lefs@lemmy.ml · 50 pts · 2y (3 replies)

call social programs 'entitlements'.

MrVilliam@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 2y (1 reply)

And it's not wrong to call them that. We are entitled to social programs that we paid into. The issue is the popularity of people saying that some are "entitled" instead of "self-entitled".

pr06lefs@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 2y

I don't disagree (that we should get what we paid for), but I think that term is meant to imply that beneficiaries of these programs are spoiled brats. Its idiotic, but then so is our politics. The distinction between 'entitled' and 'self-entitled' I think is way too fine a point for our national discourse.

hperrin@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y

I like the term “earned benefits” for things like Social Security that you have to pay into.

sanguinepar@lemmy.world · 28 pts · 2y

Calling refugees "immigrants"

Calling making an effort to be inclusive with people marginalised in some way, "woke"

200ok@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 2y (3 replies)

"Booze-hound" to mean someone with an alcohol addiction

200ok@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 2y (2 replies)

and someone who is addicted to drugs is sometimes called a "junkie".

tourist@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2y (1 reply)

they usually just use my first name

Hextubewontallowme@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 2y

Tbf, western tourists kinda be like that tho...

vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 2y

Death tax

200ok@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2y (6 replies)

Back when I was in high school, I remember people calling introverts and goths "freaks" (i.e. people who are outside the "norm".)

qisope@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y (5 replies)
[ removed ]
MapleEngineer@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 2y (4 replies)

I tell my friends that Asperger's is a super power and that the word, "normies" is an insult.

TheWoozy@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y (1 reply)

I've aways assumed "normie" was an insult. But I might be over sensitive to such things, becaise "cis" also sounds like an insult to me.

MapleEngineer@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

A lesbian friend was the first person to call me cis. I had no idea what it meant. Now that I understand I have embraced the term to make clear how I see myself. I am a cis male.

200ok@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y (1 reply)

i.e. "boring" 💪

MapleEngineer@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

Exactly.

200ok@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 2y

Some people call a therapist a "shrink".

200ok@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 2y (1 reply)

There are a number of dysphemisms that are used to signify a person displaying symptoms of mental illness:

  • crazy

  • whack job (or whacko)

  • lunatic

200ok@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y

And I've heard someone with a physical disability is called (cringe) a "gimp". Ugh.

DirigibleProtein@aussie.zone · 3 pts · 2y (1 reply)
  • Motorcycle riders : temporary Australians; or meat crayons
  • Mental hospital : Napoleon factory (credit to Robert Heinlein)
Hextubewontallowme@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 2y

meat crayons

Now, that's a colorful right there

Mental hospital : Napoleon factory (credit to Robert Heinlein)

Why wouldn't we want more Napoleons tho?

200ok@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y

Getting "dumped" (for being on the non-consenting side of a break up.)

shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee · 2 pts · 2y

Relevant to your second example, a lot of people here tend to call therapists "paid friends".

Railison@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 2y

Kick the bucket for die

deegeese@sopuli.xyz · -1 pts · 2y (1 reply)

San FranStinkTown

TheWoozy@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

Chitown for Chicago.

mo_lave@reddthat.com · -2 pts · 2y

So-so no Frieren (I actually think it's goated, btw)

You'll see a lot of dysphemisms in the 2____4u communities as well.