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"the big C" or "long illness"; AIDS is called "social disease"; Cork, standing for "God only really knows" is a "vegetable" patient, whose coma bewilders the doctor. Euphemisms for certain functions of the body deserve special mentioning here, mainly because ignorance of them may cause considerable embarrassment. English has a variety of terms in this category, such as "go to the men's/ladies' room, rest room, wash room; wash one's hands ;to relieve oneself; to freshen up; to make number one/two; or because nature calls", etc. Also, in any culture there are certain notions or things strongly forbidden by social customs such taboos as "God damned!" "Bloody!" are usually replaced by "Blow it!" "Darn (it)!" or "Confound it!" And "the devil" is often replaced by "the Dickens", "Old Poker", or "Old Hardy". "Hell" is replaced by "heck", "the other place". Besides, in Western countries, people usually avoid referring to religious words or the name of God for they fear supernatural forces. Thus people say "goodness", "goodness gracious" instead of "God". And "My Gum" is the euphemism of "My God".
3.1.2 Politeness Function
With the development of social economy, people spontaneously pursue the language civilization to show that they are civilized and cultivated. So when people have to refer to something unpleasant, they prefer to employ some mild, implicit and euphemistic expressions. In such cases, the practice of euphemism shows its politeness function. Here, the key point of politeness function is to respect others, to express something politely, so as to keep people from being hurt and make them accept those things pleasantly. In communication with others, euphemisms can help people form a positive communication atmosphere and establish harmonious social relationship and eventually obtain the communication goals. "Old" is a very sensitive word to many people in the English- speaking countries, because "old" gives people an impression that someone is useless to society. So usually, we use "senior citizens" or "superior citizens" to refer to the old people. And "feel one's age" is usedto mean "get old". Besides, the word "poor" also has many euphemisms. "During the last twenty years or so, several other words have been trying to take its place, at least among educated and in ‘officials'. As some unfortunate person put it: ‘at first I was poor, then I became needy, later I was underprivileged. Now I'm disadvantaged. I still don't have a cent to my name, but I sure have a great vocabulary.'"(Deng Yan Chang &Liu Run qing, 80)Among them, the words "poor, needy, underprivileged, disadvantaged" all have the same meaning in essence, but more euphemistic than the former one. In education, euphemisms are likewise prolific. Some people prefer educator to teacher. Students are still students, but comments about them need to be carefully considered. ‘Negative expressions' have given way to ‘more positive' ones."(Deng Yan Chang &Liu Run qing, 80)The comment for a below-average student might be that he/she is working at his/her own level, which doesn't hurt anyone's pride. "Can do better work with help" doe