Word: blunt
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From a Greek word meaning "to use words of good omen," euphemism is the substitution of a pleasant term for a blunt one-telling it like it isn't. Euphemism has probably existed since the beginning of language. As long as there have been things of which men thought the less said the better, there have been better ways of saying less. In everyday conversation the euphemism is, at worst, a necessary evil; at its best, it is a handy verbal tool to avoid making enemies needlessly, or shocking friends. Language purists and the blunt-spoken may wince when...
...EITHER case, though, you'd best expect a good bit of violence. Violence, along with a cataclysmic sense of emergency, has become pretty fashionable here of late. It makes life at Harvard alternately exciting, exhausting, and intolerable. Our Harvard-in its prose and its "politics" -practices a kind of blunt, immediate violence. Over dinner we argue about movies and rock, late at night we meet over beer or dope to argue about each other, and, once our ideas have reached a state of partial articulation, we confront and demand and we curse. O-K, so maybe we're sometimes wrong...
...charges by firing off a few of her own. She claims that Nunn, the state's first Republican Governor in 20 years, is jealous of her program's success and trying to improve his party's fortunes at her expense. Her riposte does little to blunt the thrust of Nunn's original accusation, for her family's seignorial attitude toward the people in its domain is evidence enough of its political power. "These are my folks around here," says Mrs. Howell. "They need help." The people of Breathitt repaid such sentiments last month by flocking...
...Sudan sent its new ruler, Major General Jaafar Nimeiry. The oil-soaked Kuwaitis, Saudis and Libyans, who already donate $378 million a year to war-damaged Egypt and Jordan, stayed away, lest they be touched for even bigger donations. Sure enough, the leaders at the mini-summit made a blunt demand for more money, declaring that "present economic aid is considered less than what is needed...
Lyndon Johnson's talent for pressing the flesh, for example, did nothing on his few transatlantic forays to stop the deterioration of U.S.-European relations that resulted from his blunt disregard of America's allies. By contrast, Nixon's recognition of common Atlantic interests has made relations between the U.S. and Europe better than they have been for years. The moon landing left Europeans spellbound, and Charles de Gaulle is no longer France; but some of the credit for improvement in the U.S.-European ambience this year is due to Nixon's February tour of NATO capitals and the sound...