Today we begin a two-week look at some “weasel words” – those which are designed to hide the true meaning of the thing being described or spoken about.
These words, which range from slightly evasive to brazenly euphemistic, are meant to make the truth a bit more palatable.
asymmetric warfare - conflict between two sides with significantly different military resources
benign neglect - ignoring a pressing problem
blue-on-blue - involving accidental firing on one’s allies in a military situation
challenge - a problem, a difficulty
change management - directing a change in a company, especially in making numerous people redundant
collateral damage - civilian casualties or damage to non-military targets
consolidation - collating all one’s debts to create one massive one
correctional facility - a prison
deaccession - selling off library books, works of art, etc
deleveraging - paying back borrowed money
disadvantaged - poor, in poverty
disinformation - lying
downsize - the process whereby a company makes itself smaller, especially by means of redundancies
efficiencies - cutbacks
enhanced (or alternative) interrogation - interrogation using severe coercive techniques
ethnic cleansing - genocide
extraordinary rendition - the covert transporting of individuals, especially terrorist
suspects, to undisclosed destinations for the purpose of interrogation
Next week we will conclude our look at these weasel words.
* All words in this blog post have been supplied by The 12th edition of The Chambers Dictionary. ISBN 97805501002379
Twitter: hldame3
Patrick,
I think you mean wussification words
Larry3
Twitter: chattopatrick
Yes Larry you could just be right
P.
Another odd words that I never encountered in my life before, I am glad that you keep on sharing such word that doesn’t exist nowadays.
Hi Patrick these words are very interesting and some are very disturbing such as ethnic cleansing. Very interesting. Thanks for the info Patrick.
I thought that weasel words were going to be about something like the honey badger lol.
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Twitter: chattopatrick
Ha ha Barb,
I asked the honey badger if he wanted to feature in this collection of words but he said he didn’t care either way…so I left him out.
P.
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