help me out - quick poll question

[timepiececlock]

It's not invasion, folks, it's "regime change."
*

I'm doing a thing in my class on euphemisms. I need to gather information and then analyze it. As many people as possible who answer this poll will win my extreme gratefulness and possibly online sexual favors. ;)

[Poll #147382]

*If you're wondering why I'm asking for you gender... it's part of what I'm trying to analyze, how euphemisms are different between men and women. Most of the people who've friended me are female I think, but some of you I haven't talked to much or at all and don't want to assume.

** please answer strait from your head; don't taint your answer and look at other people's first. You don't have to be the funniest, just whatever term you prefer to use.

Comments

[bathsweaver.livejournal.com]

Hmm--you do mean insane as in truly in an asylum insane? Or just crazy as in sane, but not 'normal'? Cause one is funny, and has tons of slang; and the other is spoken of in hushed, fearful tones and quiet corners as though it could be contagious when referred to directly or without respect.

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

either. My paper is going to deal with mental illness as a taboo language subject, talking about both humor and seriousness of why people euphemise it, why they're uncomfortable talking about it.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I was about to change my answer exactly because it was the first thing to come into my brain, but it is a phrase I tend to use... you can change it to, umm, 'touched' if you want...

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

your initial answer was fine. Didn't want people overthinking it-- the first thought is likely the most accurate.

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

Would nationality not be an important consideration? After all, regional distinctions are probably more important to euphemisms than gender!

(especially in the case of a non-sexual term)

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Would nationality not be an important consideration? After all, regional distinctions are probably more important to euphemisms than gender!

I thought long and hard about that. I'm actually going to gather most of my info from the students on my campus, and I didn't feel comfortable asking every person their ethnicity-- I thought it would scare them off from answering my real question.

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, because everyone off LJ you ask would be American, wouldn't they?

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Um.. I'm afraid I don't understand that. Not everyone who goes to my school is American either, so I'm not sure what your point is.

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

LOL! That's because it made no sense. I have a splitting headache. Why am I even trying to talk?

::slinks away::

fuck it.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

oh, damn.

And I just sent you a really long reply, too.

Good luck wiht your headache.

nationality/ethnicity

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

oh, you're bugged because you mentioned nationality and I changed that to a comment about ethincity?

I'd consider it more of an ethnicity thing than a nationality thing, because I personally am not looking at regional roots of specific terms-- that's far beyond my capabilities. I'm looking at as many phrases as I can come across in English as a whole, from as many English speakers as I can get. And that means euphemisms in English from, say, a Swedish English-speaker is as valid as one from a Canadian English-speaker or American English-speaker. Ethnicity would be an easier thing to ask, because that factors more specifically into cultural upbringing differences between people in the same area (possibly of the same nationality). But again, that's too personal for me to ask and also would amount to way too much information for my purposes.

I hope that helped...if my nationality/ethnicity word switch wasn't what irked you, then you'll have to tell me.

Re: nationality/ethnicity

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I actually didn't realize you were asking people at school too, and since LJ fandom has lots of Brits and Europeans and Australians too I thought there would be an interesting difference in responses from people from different countries.

Then you mentioned asking people on campus, too, and I realized that most of your respondants would be American, so it probably didn't matter.

I just worded it wrong and didn't doublecheck my comment.

[http://users.livejournal.com/skylar_/]

Just a footnote to my contribution:

It's tranlated from german and I heard it used by both genders. Usually, a phrase like that goes around. I remember when I was in school, it was "he/she's contaminated" (If someone did something especially insane: "You're so contaminated, you must be living next to a nuclear reactor").

Obviously, I thought you meant "insane" as "funny behaving/thinking" :o)

Re:

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Obviously, I thought you meant "insane" as "funny behaving/thinking"

I did. I meant everything in which you might use a euphemism for insane/crazy.

[harmonyfb.livejournal.com]

My answer is derived from a Zippy the Pinhead cartoon I saw while in college, where Zippy observes, "Mental illness smells like a magic marker." Just fyi.