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Mark Peters

Mark Peters is a language columnist, lexicographer, and humorist who has written for Esquire, The Funny Times, New Scientist, Psychology Today, Salon, and Slate. He contributes to OUPblog and writes the Best Joke Ever column for McSweeney's. You can read Mark's own jokes on Twitter, such as, "I play by my own rules, which is probably why no one comes to my board game parties anymore."
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Evasive Maneuvers

Euphemisms old and new

Gadswookers! Catastrophic Euphemism Failures

Premium content available only to Visual Thesaurus subscribers.February 5, 2015
By Mark Peters
Turns out the American Dialect Society callously disregarded my selection of conscious uncoupling (Gwyneth Paltrow's cuckoo-bananas term for divorce) for Euphemism of the Year. Instead, these linguists, lexicographers, word mavens, and rogue wordanistas selected EIT: an abbreviation of enhanced interrogation techniques, which is a euphemism of a euphemism.  Continue reading...
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Evasive Maneuvers

Euphemisms old and new

What's the Euphemism of the Year?

January 2, 2015
By Mark Peters
It's never easy picking a Euphemism of the Year. For 2014, it feels like a four-horse race—or should I say a four-pronged equine competition. My picks for EOTY are a Gwyneth Paltrow special and three other mounds of mumbo-jumbo. Read them and weep for clear, honest, non-sneaky language.  Continue reading...
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Evasive Maneuvers

Euphemisms old and new

Metahuman Anomaly Activity and Other Character Concerns

Premium content available only to Visual Thesaurus subscribers.December 3, 2014
By Mark Peters
When potential tourist-carrying SpaceShipTwo crashed, resulting in one death, you just knew there would be some euphemisms to explain the disaster. The euph of choice was anomaly.  Continue reading...
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Evasive Maneuvers

Euphemisms old and new

Charismatic, High-Concept, Low-Risk Euphemisms

November 5, 2014
By Mark Peters
It's almost Euphemism of the Year time, and whoa nelly, do I have a contender: sluggish cognitive tempo. As Peter Aldhous notes in Slate, "The name of a 'new attention disorder' sounds like an Onion-style parody. It also sounds like a classic case of disease mongering: blurring normality with sickness to boost drug companies' bottom lines."  Continue reading...
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Evasive Maneuvers

Euphemisms old and new

A Load of Non-Core Assets

October 3, 2014
By Mark Peters
Garbage is such a trashy word. It suggests rubbish, waste, and, well, garbage. So why not put a positive spin on refuse with the term non-core assets? It applies equally well to financial garbage and garbage garbage, not to mention anything else that's not worth a lick.  Continue reading...
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Evasive Maneuvers

Euphemisms old and new

We Are All Technicians: An Evergreen, Always Silly Euphemism

September 3, 2014
By Mark Peters
I've spent 81.7% of my life watching Seinfeld, but I just realized I never mentioned a Seinfeldian euphemism in one of my columns. Bagel technician, meaning someone who makes bagels, is the preposterous title on Kramer's business card during "The Strike" episode, which is better known for launching the holiday Festivus.  Continue reading...
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Evasive Maneuvers

Euphemisms old and new

Tender Undoing and Other Surface Coal

August 6, 2014
By Mark Peters
We have another Euphemism of the Year candidate—and perhaps an entirely new category. In reference to her impending divorce, singer Jewel called the event a tender undoing, apparently seeking to create a more gibberish-soaked term than conscious uncoupling, which Gwyneth Paltrow famously used to describe her own divorce.  Continue reading...
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1 2 3 4 5 Displaying 1-7 of 103 Articles