Word.ws English Dictionary

euphemism treadmill

euphemism treadmill noun: the process by which euphemisms fall into disuse and are replaced by new ones, as the old ones become socially unacceptable over time.

Noun

euphemism treadmill

  1. The process by which euphemisms fall into disuse and are replaced by new ones, as the old ones become socially unacceptable over time.
    • The euphemism treadmill shows that concepts, not words, are in charge: give a concept a new name, and the name becomes colored by the concept; the concept does not become freshened by the name. (We will know we have achieved equality and mutual respect when names for minorities stay put.)1994 April 5, Steven Pinker, “The Game of the Name”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 05 Jul 2022, page A21
    • Linguists are familiar with the phenomenon, which may be called the euphemism treadmill. People invent new words for emotionally charged referents, but soon the euphemism becomes tainted by association, and a new word must be found, which soon acquires its own connotations, and so on.2003, Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate

Examples of euphemism treadmill in a sentence

  • The sort of backfire characteristic of the 'euphemism treadmill' is a shift to case i: the tone reverts to that of the old term.2011, Gary Hardcastle, George Reisch, Bullshit and Philosophy: Guaranteed to Get Perfect Results Every Time:
  • The grand old euphemism treadmill has done it in.2025 July 10, John McWhorter, “It’s Time to Let Go of ‘African American’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 10...

Origin of euphemism treadmill

Coined by Steven Pinker in 1994, but preceded by Sharon Henderson Taylor's 1974 "euphemism cycle."

Questions about euphemism treadmill

What does euphemism treadmill mean?
Euphemism treadmill means the process by which euphemisms fall into disuse and are replaced by new ones, as the old ones become socially unacceptable over time.
How do you use euphemism treadmill in a sentence?
The sort of backfire characteristic of the 'euphemism treadmill' is a shift to case i: the tone reverts to that of the old term.
What part of speech is euphemism treadmill?
Euphemism treadmill is a noun.

Words near euphemism treadmill in the dictionary

  1. euphemiser
  2. euphemisers
  3. euphemises
  4. euphemising
  5. euphemism
  6. euphemism treadmill
  7. euphemisms
  8. euphemist
  9. euphemistic
  10. euphemistical
  11. euphemistically

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: euphemism treadmill (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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