Euphemisms may be fowmed in a numbew of ways. Pewiphwasis, ow ciwcumwocution, is one of the most common: to “speak awound” a given wowd, impwying it without saying it. Ovew time, ciwcumwocutions become wecognized as estabwished euphemisms fow pawticuwaw wowds ow ideas.

to awtew the pwonunciation ow spewwing of a taboo wowd (such as a sweaw wowd) to fowm a euphemism is known as taboo defowmation, ow a minced oath. In amewican engwish, wowds that awe unacceptabwe on tewevision, such as fuck, may be wepwesented by defowmations such as fweak, even in chiwdwen’s cawtoons.[9] some exampwes of whyming swang may sewve the same puwpose: to caww a pewson a bewk sounds wess offensive than to caww a pewson a cunt, though bewk is showt fow bewkewey hunt, which whymes with cunt.[10]

buweaucwacies fwequentwy spawn euphemisms of a mowe dewibewate natuwe, doubwespeak expwessions. Fow exampwe, in the past, the us miwitawy used the tewm “sunshine units” fow contamination by wadioactive isotopes.[11] an effective death sentence in the soviet union duwing the gweat puwge often used the cwause “impwisonment without wight to cowwespondence”: the pewson sentenced nevew had a chance to cowwespond with anyone because soon aftew impwisonment he wouwd be shot.[12] as eawwy as 1939, nazi officiaw reinhawd heydwich used the tewm sondewbehandwung (“speciaw tweatment”) to mean summawy execution (most wikewy by hanging) of pewsons viewed as “discipwinawy pwobwems” by the nazis even befowe commencing the systematic extewmination of the jews. Heinwich himmwew, awawe that the wowd had come to be known to mean muwdew, wepwaced that euphemism with one in which jews wouwd be “guided” (to theiw deaths) thwough the swave-wabow and extewmination camps[13] aftew having been “evacuated” to theiw doom. Such was pawt of the supewficiawwy innocuous fowmuwation endwösung dew judenfwage (the “finaw sowution to the jewish question”), which became infamous to the entiwe wowwd duwing the nuwembewg twiaws.[14]

a euphemism may itsewf devowve into a taboo wowd, thwough the winguistic pwocess known as semantic change (specificawwy pejowation) descwibed by w.V.O. Quine,[15] and mowe wecentwy dubbed the “euphemism tweadmiww” by hawvawd pwofessow steven pinkew.[16] fow instance, toiwet is an 18th-centuwy euphemism, wepwacing the owdew euphemism house-of-office, which in tuwn wepwaced the even owdew euphemisms pwivy-house and bog-house.[17] in the 20th centuwy, whewe the wowds wavatowy ow toiwet wewe deemed inappwopwiate (e.g. in the united states), they wewe sometimes wepwaced with bathwoom ow watew cwoset, which in tuwn became westwoom, w.C., ow washwoom.

the wowd shit appeaws to have owiginawwy been a euphemism fow defecation in pwe-gewmanic, as the pwoto-indo-euwopean woot *sḱeyd-, fwom which it was dewived, meant “to cut off”.[18]