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Electromagnetism

In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interactions of atoms and molecules. Electromagnetism can be thought of as a combination of electrostatics and magnetism, which are distinct but closely intertwined phenomena. Electromagnetic forces occur between any two charged particles. Electric forces cause an attraction between particles with opposite charges and repulsion between particles with the same charge, while magnetism is an interaction that occurs between charged particles in relative motion. These two forces are described in terms of electromagnetic fields. Macroscopic charged objects are described in terms of Coulomb's law for electricity and Ampère's force law for magnetism; the Lorentz force describes microscopic charged particles.

The electromagnetic force is responsible for many of the chemical and physical phenomena observed in daily life. The electrostatic attraction between atomic nuclei and their electrons holds atoms together. Electric forces also allow different atoms to combine into molecules, including the macromolecules such as proteins that form the basis of life. Meanwhile, magnetic interactions between the spin and angular momentum magnetic moments of electrons also play a role in chemical reactivity; such relationships are studied in spin chemistry. Electromagnetism also plays several crucial roles in modern technology: electrical energy production, transformation and distribution; light, heat, and sound production and detection; fiber optic and wireless communication; sensors; computation; electrolysis; electroplating; and mechanical motors and actuators.

Electromagnetism has been studied since ancient times. Many ancient civilizations, including the Greeks and the Mayans, created wide-ranging theories to explain lightning, static electricity, and the attraction between magnetized pieces of iron ore. However, it was not until the late 18th century that scientists began to develop a mathematical basis for understanding the nature of electromagnetic interactions. In the 18th and 19th centuries, prominent scientists and mathematicians such as Coulomb, Gauss and Faraday developed namesake laws which helped to explain the formation and interaction of electromagnetic fields. This process culminated in the 1860s with the discovery of Maxwell's equations, a set of four partial differential equations which provide a complete description of classical electromagnetic fields. Maxwell's equations provided a sound mathematical basis for the relationships between electricity and magnetism that scientists had been exploring for centuries, and predicted the existence of self-sustaining electromagnetic waves. Maxwell postulated that such waves make up visible light, which was later shown to be true. Gamma-rays, x-rays, ultraviolet, visible, infrared radiation, microwaves and radio waves were all determined to be electromagnetic radiation differing only in their range of frequencies.

In the modern era, scientists have continued to refine the theorem of electromagnetism to take into account the effects of modern physics, including quantum mechanics and relativity. The theoretical implications of electromagnetism, particularly the establishment of the speed of light based on properties of the "medium" of propagation (permeability and permittivity), helped inspire Einstein's theory of special relativity in 1905. Meanwhile, the field of quantum electrodynamics (QED) has modified Maxwell's equations to be consistent with the quantized nature of matter. In QED, the changes in the electromagnetic field is expressed in terms of discrete excitations, particles known as photons, the quanta of light.

Ancient world
Investigation into electromagnetic phenomena began about 5,000 years ago. There is evidence that the ancient Chinese, Mayan, and potentially even Egyptian civilizations knew that the naturally magnetic mineral magnetite had attractive properties, and many incorporated it into their art and architecture. Ancient people were also aware of lightning and static electricity, although they had no idea of the mechanisms behind these phenomena. The Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus discovered around 600 B.C.E. that amber could acquire an electric charge when it was rubbed with cloth, which allowed it to pick up light objects such as pieces of straw. Thales also experimented with the ability of magnetic rocks to attract one other, and hypothesized that this phenomenon might be connected to the attractive power of amber, foreshadowing the deep connections between electricity and magnetism that would be discovered over 2,000 years later. Despite all this investigation, ancient civilizations had no understanding of the mathematical basis of electromagnetism, and often analyzed its impacts through the lens of religion rather than science (lightning, for instance, was considered to be a creation of the gods in many cultures).

19th century
Electricity and magnetism were originally considered to be two separate forces. This view changed with the publication of James Clerk Maxwell's 1873 A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in which the interactions of positive and negative charges were shown to be mediated by one force. There are four main effects resulting from these interactions, all of which have been clearly demonstrated by experiments: In April 1820, Hans Christian Ørsted observed that an electrical current in a wire caused a nearby compass needle to move. At the time of discovery, Ørsted did not suggest any satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon, nor did he try to represent the phenomenon in a mathematical framework. However, three months later he began more intensive investigations. Soon thereafter he published his findings, proving that an electric current produces a magnetic field as it flows through a wire. The CGS unit of magnetic induction (oersted) is named in honor of his contributions to the field of electromagnetism.
 * 1) Electric charges attract or repel one another with a force inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them: unlike charges attract, like ones repel.
 * 2) Magnetic poles (or states of polarization at individual points) attract or repel one another in a manner similar to positive and negative charges and always exist as pairs: every north pole is yoked to a south pole.
 * 3) An electric current inside a wire creates a corresponding circumferential magnetic field outside the wire. Its direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise) depends on the direction of the current in the wire.
 * 4) A current is induced in a loop of wire when it is moved toward or away from a magnetic field, or a magnet is moved towards or away from it; the direction of current depends on that of the movement.

His findings resulted in intensive research throughout the scientific community in electrodynamics. They influenced French physicist André-Marie Ampère's developments of a single mathematical form to represent the magnetic forces between current-carrying conductors. Ørsted's discovery also represented a major step toward a unified concept of energy.

This unification, which was observed by Michael Faraday, extended by James Clerk Maxwell, and partially reformulated by Oliver Heaviside and Heinrich Hertz, is one of the key accomplishments of 19th-century mathematical physics. It has had far-reaching consequences, one of which was the understanding of the nature of light. Unlike what was proposed by the electromagnetic theory of that time, light and other electromagnetic waves are at present seen as taking the form of quantized, self-propagating oscillatory electromagnetic field disturbances called photons. Different frequencies of oscillation give rise to the different forms of electromagnetic radiation, from radio waves at the lowest frequencies, to visible light at intermediate frequencies, to gamma rays at the highest frequencies.

Ørsted was not the only person to examine the relationship between electricity and magnetism. In 1802, Gian Domenico Romagnosi, an Italian legal scholar, deflected a magnetic needle using a Voltaic pile. The factual setup of the experiment is not completely clear, nor if current flowed across the needle or not. An account of the discovery was published in 1802 in an Italian newspaper, but it was largely overlooked by the contemporary scientific community, because Romagnosi seemingly did not belong to this community.

An earlier (1735), and often neglected, connection between electricity and magnetism was reported by a Dr. Cookson. The account stated:"A tradesman at Wakefield in Yorkshire, having put up a great number of knives and forks in a large box ... and having placed the box in the corner of a large room, there happened a sudden storm of thunder, lightning, &c. ... The owner emptying the box on a counter where some nails lay, the persons who took up the knives, that lay on the nails, observed that the knives took up the nails. On this the whole number was tried, and found to do the same, and that, to such a degree as to take up large nails, packing needles, and other iron things of considerable weight ..." E. T. Whittaker suggested in 1910 that this particular event was responsible for lightning to be "credited with the power of magnetizing steel; and it was doubtless this which led Franklin in 1751 to attempt to magnetize a sewing-needle by means of the discharge of Leyden jars."

A fundamental force
The electromagnetic force is the second strongest of the four known fundamental forces. It operates with infinite range. All other forces (e.g., friction, contact forces) are derived from these four fundamental forces and they are known as non-fundamental forces. At high energy, the weak force and electromagnetic force are unified as a single interaction called the electroweak interaction.

Roughly speaking, all the forces involved in interactions between atoms can be explained by the electromagnetic force acting between the electrically charged atomic nuclei and electrons of the atoms. Electromagnetic forces also explain how these particles carry momentum by their movement. This includes the forces we experience in "pushing" or "pulling" ordinary material objects, which result from the intermolecular forces that act between the individual molecules in our bodies and those in the objects. The electromagnetic force is also involved in all forms of chemical phenomena.

A necessary part of understanding the intra-atomic and intermolecular forces is the effective force generated by the momentum of the electrons' movement, such that as electrons move between interacting atoms they carry momentum with them. As a collection of electrons becomes more confined, their minimum momentum necessarily increases due to the Pauli exclusion principle. The behaviour of matter at the molecular scale including its density is determined by the balance between the electromagnetic force and the force generated by the exchange of momentum carried by the electrons themselves.

Classical electrodynamics
In 1600, William Gilbert proposed, in his De Magnete, that electricity and magnetism, while both capable of causing attraction and repulsion of objects, were distinct effects. Mariners had noticed that lightning strikes had the ability to disturb a compass needle. The link between lightning and electricity was not confirmed until Benjamin Franklin's proposed experiments in 1752 were conducted on 10May 1752 by Thomas-François Dalibard of France using a 40 ft iron rod instead of a kite and he successfully extracted electrical sparks from a cloud.

One of the first to discover and publish a link between human-made electric current and magnetism was Gian Romagnosi, who in 1802 noticed that connecting a wire across a voltaic pile deflected a nearby compass needle. However, the effect did not become widely known until 1820, when Ørsted performed a similar experiment. Ørsted's work influenced Ampère to conduct further experiments, which eventually gave rise to a new area of physics: electrodynamics. By determining a force law for the interaction between elements of electric current, Ampère placed the subject on a solid mathematical foundation.

A theory of electromagnetism, known as classical electromagnetism, was developed by several physicists during the period between 1820 and 1873, when James Clerk Maxwell's treatise was published, which unified previous developments into a single theory, proposing that light was an electromagnetic wave propagating in the luminiferous ether. In classical electromagnetism, the behavior of the electromagnetic field is described by a set of equations known as Maxwell's equations, and the electromagnetic force is given by the Lorentz force law.

One of the peculiarities of classical electromagnetism is that it is difficult to reconcile with classical mechanics, but it is compatible with special relativity. According to Maxwell's equations, the speed of light in vacuum is a universal constant that is dependent only on the electrical permittivity and magnetic permeability of free space. This violates Galilean invariance, a long-standing cornerstone of classical mechanics. One way to reconcile the two theories (electromagnetism and classical mechanics) is to assume the existence of a luminiferous aether through which the light propagates. However, subsequent experimental efforts failed to detect the presence of the aether. After important contributions of Hendrik Lorentz and Henri Poincaré, in 1905, Albert Einstein solved the problem with the introduction of special relativity, which replaced classical kinematics with a new theory of kinematics compatible with classical electromagnetism. (For more information, see History of special relativity.)

In addition, relativity theory implies that in moving frames of reference, a magnetic field transforms to a field with a nonzero electric component and conversely, a moving electric field transforms to a nonzero magnetic component, thus firmly showing that the phenomena are two sides of the same coin. Hence the term "electromagnetism". (For more information, see Classical electromagnetism and special relativity and Covariant formulation of classical electromagnetism.)

Today few problems in electromagnetism remain unsolved. These include: the lack of magnetic monopoles, Abraham–Minkowski controversy, and the mechanism by which some organisms can sense electric and magnetic fields.

Extension to nonlinear phenomena
The Maxwell equations are linear, in that a change in the sources (the charges and currents) results in a proportional change of the fields. Nonlinear dynamics can occur when electromagnetic fields couple to matter that follows nonlinear dynamical laws. This is studied, for example, in the subject of magnetohydrodynamics, which combines Maxwell theory with the Navier–Stokes equations. Another branch of electromagnetism dealing with nonlinearity is nonlinear optics.

Quantities and units
Here is a list of common units related to electromagnetism:

 * ampere (electric current)
 * coulomb (electric charge)
 * farad (capacitance)
 * henry (inductance)
 * ohm (resistance)
 * siemens (conductance)
 * tesla (magnetic flux density)
 * volt (electric potential)
 * watt (power)
 * weber (magnetic flux)

In the electromagnetic CGS system, electric current is a fundamental quantity defined via Ampère's law and takes the permeability as a dimensionless quantity (relative permeability) whose value in vacuum is unity. As a consequence, the square of the speed of light appears explicitly in some of the equations interrelating quantities in this system.

Formulas for physical laws of electromagnetism (such as Maxwell's equations) need to be adjusted depending on what system of units one uses. This is because there is no one-to-one correspondence between electromagnetic units in SI and those in CGS, as is the case for mechanical units. Furthermore, within CGS, there are several plausible choices of electromagnetic units, leading to different unit "sub-systems", including Gaussian, "ESU", "EMU", and Heaviside–Lorentz. Among these choices, Gaussian units are the most common today, and in fact the phrase "CGS units" is often used to refer specifically to CGS-Gaussian units.

Applications
The study of electromagnetism informs electric circuits, magnetic circuits, and semiconductor devices' construction.

title: Electromagnetism


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Euphemism

Drugstore aisle sign with euphemisms.jpg drugstore using common euphemisms for (from top): • contraceptives

• vaginal douches

• menstrual pads and tampons

• adult diapers|alt=A yellow sign with a pointed bottom. At the top is the number 5 in an oval with a blue background. Below it are the words "family planning", "feminine hygiene", "feminine protection" and "sanitary protection"]] A euphemism is an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or suggests something unpleasant. Some euphemisms are intended to amuse, while others use bland, inoffensive terms for concepts that the user wishes to downplay. Euphemisms may be used to mask profanity or refer to topics some consider taboo such as mental or physical disability, sexual intercourse, bodily excretions, pain, violence, illness, or death in a polite way.

Etymology
Euphemism comes from the Greek word euphemia (εὐφημία) which refers to the use of 'words of good omen'; it is a compound of eû (εὖ), meaning 'good, well', and phḗmē (φήμη), meaning 'prophetic speech; rumour, talk'. Eupheme is a reference to the female Greek spirit of words of praise and positivity, etc. The term euphemism itself was used as a euphemism by the ancient Greeks; with the meaning "to keep a holy silence" (speaking well by not speaking at all).

Avoidance
Reasons for using euphemisms vary by context and intent. Commonly, euphemisms are used to avoid directly addressing subjects that might be deemed negative or embarrassing, e.g., death, sex, excretory bodily functions. They may be created for innocent, well-intentioned purposes or nefariously and cynically, intentionally to deceive, confuse or deny. Euphemisms which emerge as dominant social euphemisms are often created to serve progressive causes.

Mitigation
Euphemisms are also used to mitigate, soften or downplay the gravity of large-scale injustices, war crimes, or other events that warrant a pattern of avoidance in official statements or documents. For instance, one reason for the comparative scarcity of written evidence documenting the exterminations at Auschwitz, relative to their sheer number, is "directives for the extermination process obscured in bureaucratic euphemisms". Another example of this is during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, where Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his speech starting the invasion, called the invasion a "special military operation".

Euphemisms are sometimes used to lessen the opposition to a political move. For example, according to linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the neutral Hebrew lexical item פעימות peimót (literally 'beatings (of the heart)'), rather than נסיגה nesigá ('withdrawal'), to refer to the stages in the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, in order to lessen the opposition of right-wing Israelis to such a move. Peimót was thus used as a euphemism for 'withdrawal'.

Rhetoric
Euphemism may be used as a rhetorical strategy, in which case its goal is to change the valence of a description.

Controversial use
Using a euphemism can in itself be controversial, as in the following examples:
 * Reproductive health is used as a euphemism for the medical procedure of abortion, often employed for political reasons. Many pro-abortion institutions now advocate using the term "abortion" instead of relying on euphemisms in order to earn greater social acceptance of the procedure.
 * Affirmative action, meaning a preference for minorities or the historically disadvantaged, usually in employment or academic admissions. This term is sometimes said to be a euphemism for reverse discrimination, or, in the UK, positive discrimination, which suggests an intentional bias that might be legally prohibited, or otherwise unpalatable. Affirmative action as euphemism:
 * Enhanced interrogation is a euphemism for torture. For example, columnist David Brooks called the use of this term for practices at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere an effort to "dull the moral sensibility". Enhanced interrogation as euphemism:
 * Enhanced interrogation is a euphemism for torture. For example, columnist David Brooks called the use of this term for practices at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere an effort to "dull the moral sensibility". Enhanced interrogation as euphemism:
 * Enhanced interrogation is a euphemism for torture. For example, columnist David Brooks called the use of this term for practices at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere an effort to "dull the moral sensibility". Enhanced interrogation as euphemism:
 * Enhanced interrogation is a euphemism for torture. For example, columnist David Brooks called the use of this term for practices at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere an effort to "dull the moral sensibility". Enhanced interrogation as euphemism:
 * Enhanced interrogation is a euphemism for torture. For example, columnist David Brooks called the use of this term for practices at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere an effort to "dull the moral sensibility". Enhanced interrogation as euphemism:
 * Enhanced interrogation is a euphemism for torture. For example, columnist David Brooks called the use of this term for practices at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere an effort to "dull the moral sensibility". Enhanced interrogation as euphemism:
 * Enhanced interrogation is a euphemism for torture. For example, columnist David Brooks called the use of this term for practices at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere an effort to "dull the moral sensibility". Enhanced interrogation as euphemism:

Online
The use of euphemism online is known as "algospeak" when used to evade automated online moderation techniques used on Meta and TikTok's platforms. Algospeak has been used in debate about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Pronunciation (phonetic modification)
Phonetic euphemism is used to replace profanities and blasphemies, diminishing their intensity. To alter the pronunciation or spelling of a taboo word (such as a swear word) to form a euphemism is known as taboo deformation, or a minced oath. Such modifications include:
 * Shortening or "clipping" the term, such as Jeez ('Jesus') and what the— ('what the hell').
 * Mispronunciations, such as oh my gosh ('oh my God'), frickin ('fucking'), darn ('damn') or oh shoot ('oh shit'). This is also referred to as a minced oath. Feck is a minced oath for 'fuck', originating in Hiberno-English and popularised outside of Ireland by the British sitcom Father Ted.
 * Using acronyms as replacements, such as SOB ('son of a bitch'). Sometimes, the word word or bomb is added after it, such as F-word ('fuck'), etc. Also, the letter can be phonetically respelled.

Understatement
Euphemisms formed from understatements include asleep for dead and drinking for consuming alcohol. "Tired and emotional" is a notorious British euphemism for "drunk", one of many recurring jokes popularized by the satirical magazine Private Eye; it has been used by MPs to avoid unparliamentary language.

Substitution
Pleasant, positive, worthy, neutral, or nondescript terms are often substituted for explicit or unpleasant ones, with many substituted terms deliberately coined by sociopolitical movements, marketing, public relations, or advertising initiatives, including:
 * meat packing company for 'slaughterhouse' (avoids entirely the subject of killing); natural issue or love child for 'bastard'; let go for 'fired/sacked', etc.

Some examples of Cockney rhyming slang may serve the same purpose: to call a person a berk sounds less offensive than to call a person a cunt, though berk is short for Berkeley Hunt, which rhymes with cunt.

Metaphor

 * Metaphors (beat the meat, choke the chicken, or jerkin' the gherkin for 'masturbation'; take a dump and take a leak for 'defecation' and 'urination', respectively)
 * Comparisons (buns for 'buttocks', weed for 'cannabis')
 * Metonymy (men's room for 'men's restroom/toilet')

Slang
The use of a term with a softer connotation, though it shares the same meaning. For instance, screwed up is a euphemism for 'fucked up'; hook-up and laid are euphemisms for 'sexual intercourse'.

Foreign words
Expressions or words from a foreign language may be imported for use as euphemism. For example, the French word enceinte was sometimes used instead of the English word pregnant; abattoir for slaughterhouse, although in French the word retains its explicit violent meaning 'a place for beating down', conveniently lost on non-French speakers. Entrepreneur for businessman, adds glamour; douche (French for 'shower') for vaginal irrigation device; bidet ('little pony') for vessel for anal washing. Ironically, although in English physical "handicaps" are almost always described with euphemism, in French the English word handicap is used as a euphemism for their problematic words infirmité or invalidité.

Periphrasis/circumlocution
Periphrasis, or circumlocution, is one of the most common: to "speak around" a given word, implying it without saying it. Over time, circumlocutions become recognized as established euphemisms for particular words or ideas.

Doublespeak
Bureaucracies frequently spawn euphemisms intentionally, as doublespeak expressions. For example, in the past, the US military used the term "sunshine units" for contamination by radioactive isotopes. The United States Central Intelligence Agency refers to systematic torture as "enhanced interrogation techniques". An effective death sentence in the Soviet Union during the Great Purge often used the clause "imprisonment without right to correspondence": the person sentenced would be shot soon after conviction. As early as 1939, Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich used the term Sonderbehandlung ("special treatment") to mean summary execution of persons viewed as "disciplinary problems" by the Nazis even before commencing the systematic extermination of the Jews. Heinrich Himmler, aware that the word had come to be known to mean murder, replaced that euphemism with one in which Jews would be "guided" (to their deaths) through the slave-labor and extermination camps after having been "evacuated" to their doom. Such was part of the formulation of Endlösung der Judenfrage (the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question"), which became known to the outside world during the Nuremberg Trials.

Lifespan
Frequently, over time, euphemisms themselves become taboo words, through the linguistic process of semantic change known as pejoration, which University of Oregon linguist Sharon Henderson Taylor dubbed the "euphemism cycle" in 1974, also frequently referred to as the "euphemism treadmill", as coined by Steven Pinker. For instance, the place of human defecation is a needy candidate for a euphemism in all eras. Toilet is an 18th-century euphemism, replacing the older euphemism house-of-office, which in turn replaced the even older euphemisms privy-house and bog-house. In the 20th century, where the old euphemisms lavatory (a place where one washes) and toilet (a place where one dresses ) had grown from widespread usage (e.g., in the United States) to being synonymous with the crude act they sought to deflect, they were sometimes replaced with bathroom (a place where one bathes), washroom (a place where one washes), or restroom (a place where one rests) or even by the extreme form powder room (a place where one applies facial cosmetics). The form water closet, often shortened to W.C., is a less deflective form. The word shit appears to have originally been a euphemism for defecation in Pre-Germanic, as the Proto-Indo-European root *, from which it was derived, meant 'to cut off'.

Another example in American English is the replacement of "colored people" with "Negro" (euphemism by foreign language), which itself came to be replaced by either "African American" or "Black". Also in the United States the term "ethnic minorities" in the 2010s has been replaced by "people of color".

Venereal disease, which associated shameful bacterial infection with a seemingly worthy ailment emanating from Venus, the goddess of love, soon lost its deflective force in the post-classical education era, as "VD", which was replaced by the three-letter initialism "STD" (sexually transmitted disease); later, "STD" was replaced by "STI" (sexually transmitted infection).

Intellectually-disabled people were originally defined with words such as "morons" or "imbeciles", which then became commonly used insults. The medical diagnosis was changed to "mentally retarded", which morphed into the pejorative, "retard", against those with intellectual disabilities. To avoid the negative connotations of their diagnoses, students who need accommodations because of such conditions are often labeled as "special needs" instead, although the words "special" or "sped" (short for "special education") have long been schoolyard insults. As of August 2013, the Social Security Administration replaced the term "mental retardation" with "intellectual disability". Since 2012, that change in terminology has been adopted by the National Institutes of Health and the medical industry at large. There are numerous disability-related euphemisms that have negative connotations.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Euphemism


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Talk:Euphemism/Archive 1

Regarding the translation of "bear" as "brown guy" – is this correct? I seem to remember (this may not be entirely accurate) that "bear" comes from the Anglo-Saxon beorn, which in turn comes from beo, meaning "bee", due to the bear's love of honey. This explains the linguistic joke in The Hobbit, where the character "Beorn" (who can turn into a bear at will) is also a beekeeper. Can anybody (with more linguistic knowledge than I have gained from reading Tolkien) confirm this? Also, "ladybird" is cited as a euphemism for "ladybug". As far as I know, "ladybird" has always been the British term and "ladybug" the American term. —Wereon

 * You could make a strong etymological case for "bear" coming from "beorn", although whether or not this is actually the case would require an examination of historical usage. The name "Beowulf" (bee-wolf) is a kenning for "bear", as would the hypothetical term "beowarg".

 * As far as Ladybug/Ladybird is concerned: The term "bug" used to refer to one particular type of insect.  In the US, it was expanded to include beetles that lacked obvious pincers, and eventually all arthropods (with the usual exception of crustaceans).  During the time when "bug" could refer to almost any beetle at all, the Americans shortened "ladybird beetle" (its "full name") to "ladybug", while the Brits simply shortened it to "ladybird". --Corvun 04:01, 27 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I hope this page is at an appropriate level of (in)offensiveness. If anyone feels it is necessary to explain what the example euphemisms mean, I suppose it must be done. (Those taboos are powerful things,) -- Janet Davis

I'm not sure I agree with "longer words". If the word has the same meaning that the one not being used can you call it an euphemism?

Well, "urinate" is certainly more polite than "piss," isn't it? (Although perhaps in the strictest sense it's not a euphemism.) -- Janet Davis

 * "Piss" is Germanic, while "urinate" is Romantic. The only reason one is considered vulgar is because of cultural descrimination during the development of the English language.  I wouldn't say that one is a euphemism for the other. --Corvun 04:01, 27 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Apparently there is an opposite of a euphemism, which is most often called a "dysphemism" but sometimes called a "diseuphemism or deeuphemism," and so I think that the anonymous poster is correct. See for instance http://www.linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/archive-most-recent/msg04202.html and http://www.linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/archive-most-recent/msg04212.html --the most discussion I've found on it; most sites merely define it and move on. Merriam-webster has it that the word dates back to 1884.

But the existence of dysphemisms leaves it to someone to determine which words are the most accurate with the least connotation, to zero the balance, so to speak, and that's something I'll not attempt. :-D

Actually there are two rough opposites of euphemism, "dysphemism" and "cacophemism". The latter I think is generally used more often in the sense of something deliberately offensive, while the former can be either offensive or merely humorously deprecating. And yes, there is necessarily a lot of subjectivity involved, because connotations eaily change over time. "Idiot" was once a neutral term, and "moron" a euphemism for it. As is usually the case with evolving languages, negative usages win over neutral ones, so we had to come up with "retarded". Now that too is considered rude, so we have "challenged", and so on. A similar progression occurred with "reek/stink/smell/odor/fragrance"...I'm sure 40 years from now "fragrant" will be the vilest insult.

At any rate, a good question to ask is what is the purpose of an encyclopedia article on "euphemism"? I'm not as anti-dictionary-entry as Larry, but in this case I think it is clearly more appropriate to give an overview of the use of euphemisms, examples, history, etc., which is likely to be much richer than what one could do with a dictionary entry. --LDC

I'm not sure that "gay" is a euphemism. Meanings of words change all the time, and it isn't unusual for one meaning to supplant another over time. The fact that a word usually meant one thing but not means another doesn't make it a euphemism. And even if it were once a euphemism (I'm not convinced it was), a case could be made that it isn't any more. —Eric

--

"spontaneous energetic disassembly" is most definitely a euphemism. There are no uses of this term on the web other than as a euphemism for "explosion": see this Google search.

Uh, I don't think that "The process of coining euphemisms is called taboo deformation". It seems like this is true only in the limited cases where (1) the word is taboo, i.e. offensive or scary, rather than impolite or unflattering, and (2) the original word or phrase is modified, not replaced. E.g. http://www.vroma.org/~jhaughto/etydefinitions.htm --GGano

 * Examples include the original Indo-European words for bear (*rktos), wolf (*wlkwos), and deer (originally, hart). In different Indo-European languages, each of these words have difficult etymologies because of taboo deformations--a euphemism was substituted for the original, and the form of the original word no longer occurs in the language. The Germanic word "bear" means "brown guy;" the Slavic root (*medu-ed-) means "honey eater."
 * Is there any evidence that these are examples of euphemisms, rather than slang? Likewise, "gay" seems to be more slang -- and "lesbian" doesn't seem to really be either a slang term, nor a euphemism. Qwert
 * "A euphemism is a word or phrase that is used in place of a more disagreeable or offensive term," and if gay and lesbian is used in place of the disagreeable and/or offensive term "homosexual" then they are euphemisms, correct?-Hyacinth 06:56, 27 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Are they less offensive? I think its certainly debatable, many people use "gay" as a perjorative which would make it far more offensive. I think "gay" is slang, not a euphemism. Qwert
 * A) Gay is not slang, it is the accepted, often preferred, and used term. B) Words can be many things, and all euphemisms start out as slang or jargon.
 * However, gay predates homosexual, so it is debatable. JDR has expressed the opinion that "same-sex" is a euphemism for homosexual, so I'll edit to that.

 * "Lesbian" is definately a euphemism. Check the page on lesbianism and read what it says about the etymology.

Being slang and being a euphemism are orthogonal terms—neither is bound up in the other. The defining characteristic of slang is that it is informal, whereas the defining characteristic of a euphemism is that it is used in place of a disagreeable term. Certainly "party" is both slang and euphemism for "take drugs", but "pass away" for "die" is a euphemism without being slang, whereas "cool" for "excellent" is slang without being a euphemism.

The situation surrounding terms marginalized groups use to describe themselves, like those who have minority sexual orientations or are from minority ethnic groups, is much too complicated to be a suitable example for the concept of euphemism. Certain epithets have been reclaimed (for example queer or nigger), but whether their usage is a euphemism, a pejorative term, or just a name is dependent on many factors, not the least of which is whether the person using it is a member of the group or not. Similarly, the terms "gay", "homosexual", and "lesbian" all have different status depending on the social group. "gay and lesbian" is preferred by many, but "queer" by some, and "homosexual" is preferred by those who seek to maintain the group's marginal status by using a cold, clinical term. The politics here are too complex for the idea to serve as an instructive example of the concept of euphemism. As such, I have removed it. Nohat 06:16, 2004 Mar 17 (UTC)

What's the SAMPA for euphemism btw? /iu/fa/m^/zm/ - SV (talk) 06:49, 17 Mar 2004 (UTC)
 * I think that'd be /"juf@mIzm=/ or, in IPA, /ˈjufəmɪzm̩/Nohat 07:07, 2004 Mar 17 (UTC)

I've been trying to find a descriptive term for the ingenuous political speech which expresses dismay or pleasure at something an opponent has done where the speaker is actually could be expected to have the opposite feeling:

 * "I am troubled that my opponent has lied about his past" meaning "Look what we caught the slime doing--what a great campaign issue."
 * "I am gratified my opponent finally realizes the importance of gerbil rights" meaning "Damn! He's digging into my core constituency!"

No term (euphemism, doublespeak, spin) seems to quite cover this, and it is tiresomely common. Cecropia 13:55, 26 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Sounds like sarcasm Nohat 14:18, 2004 Mar 26 (UTC)

 * How about irony? Pollinator 14:28, 26 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Are these the best examples ?

 * restroom for toilet room  - I think this is a euphemism
 * halitosis for bad breath  - But this definately isn't
 * canola for rapeseed       - I Don't think so
 * ladybird for ladybug      - I Don't think so either

Can we come up with some better examples? Julianp 03:57, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)

 * Canola is definitely not a euphemism for rapeseed. Canola is oil from a specific variety of rape.  It's more like a brand name.  I'm going to take it out of the article. CyborgTosser 15:50, 5 May 2004 (UTC)

 * According to Snopes:

 * The Canadian seed oil industry rechristened the product "canola oil" (Canadian oil) in 1978 in an attempt to distance the product from negative associations with the word "rape."

 * If this is correct, then "Canola" is indeed a euphemism. -- Dominus 18:04, 5 May 2004 (UTC)

 * But the negative connotation of the word "rape" is an unfortunate coincidence and has nothing to do with the meaning of the "rape" as the name of a plant. Is it a euphemism when someone opts to say "stingy" instead of "niggardly"?  I don't think so. CyborgTosser 09:39, 6 May 2004 (UTC)

 * If this hypothetical person intended to say "niggardly", and then intentionally chose "stingy" instead because they wanted to avoid the apparent bad associations of "niggardly", then yes, I would say that "stingy" was being used as a euphemism. The example seems a little obscure because "niggardly" is such an uncommon word.  But consider the use of "drumstick" and "second joint" instead of "leg" and "thigh" for chicken parts.  These words refer to pieces of meat, not to portions of the human anatomy, but they are euphemisms anyway, because they are used specifically to avoid the unpleasant associations, real or imagined, with the human body.  When "hamburger" was renamed "liberty steak" during World War I, that was a euphemism, because it was done to avoid apparent associations with Germany, even though hamburgers never had anything to do with Hamburg or with Germany. -- Dominus 13:47, 6 May 2004 (UTC)

 * Consider the following sentence from the article:
 * When a phrase becomes a euphemism, its literal meaning is often pushed aside.
 * Euphemisms are what they are because of how they are used. In the case of "canola", there is no literal meaning being pushed aside, only a possible misinterpretation.  On the other hand, the leg and a thigh of a chicken are the biologically analogous features of the chicken.  If that bothers someone, it is not due to a simple misunderstanding about similar sounding words.  By the way, "niggardly" is not an obscure example.  A search on Google should show you otherwise. CyborgTosser 04:58, 8 May 2004 (UTC)

Taken out because it looks irrelevant in the context: "Because death and dying is one of the most significant yet least understood transitions in human lives," 62.214.61.187 15:27, 27 Jun 2004 (UTC)

One time I was on a camping trip and a man said he was going "off to water a tree", which has since been my favorite euphemism for urination. -- 66.32.114.171 18:29, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)

A couple of points I'm not sure about here. First of all:

"Funeral director" replaced "mortician", which replaced "undertaker", which replaced "gravedigger".

These terms don't all neccesarily have the same meaning. Certainly, gravedigger has a very specific meaning, whereas the others refer to a variety of tasks.

Secondly, the two points about shell shock and PTSD:

''"Shell shock" was later replaced by "combat fatigue" and then "Post-traumatic stress disorder"

''post-traumatic stress disorder, a euphemism for operational exhaustion, euphemism for battle fatigue, a euphemism for shell shock. Used as an example of dehumanization of language (particularly by the American comedian George Carlin). The terms were used in the Vietnam War, Korean War, World War 2 and World War 1 respectively.'

PTSD isn't really a euphemism, as I understand it, but rather a medical term that emerged after the condition was properly described. Not only that, it makes it less combat-specific, as it's now widely accepted that the condition can occur to anyone who has been through trauma, not just soldiers. It would be ridiculous to describe, for instance, a rape victim or train crash survivor, as having "shell shock".--MockTurtle 23:15, 27 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Is Chest really a euphemism for Breasts
I mean the consept of chest is much broader. Thus including that as a euphemist without anything else to say is rather... un-wiki-like... q;-) Beta m 13:06, 2004 Sep 10 (UTC)
 * I would argue that it is a euphemism, because it is sometimes used to describe the breast region. While it has other, more literal meanings, so do euphemisms like "tinkle", "washroom", and "freak". Denni ☯ 21:00, 2004 Sep 11 (UTC)

Bathroom and Urinate
From my knowledge of the history of English language, the proper Anglo-Saxon word for urinate is piss (and actually proper word for excremate is shit). Now i can see how this can be considered archaic and of no relevance today. However, bathroom is most definately a euphemism for toilet (toilet room) since most of the time there is no bath in there and the reason it's refered to as such is for people not having to talk about bodily wastes. Beta m (talk)

"In a few decades, calling someone "special" may well be a grave insult."-At my school, people actually do that if they want to be insulting in a subtle, minor way. LtNOWIS

Same here - in Scotland - one way to insult someone is to say they're special, or do an impression of them saying "but my parents say I'm special". It can be pretty harsh.

Computer-implemented invention
I removed in doublespeak section:
 * "computer-implemented invention for computer program, or programming method, as used by EU governmental officials to legitimize software patents, which are specifically prohibited by the European Patent Convention but which they seek to legalize."

It is wrong to say that all software patent are specifically prohibited by the European Patent Convention or de jure excluded from patentability under the European Patent Convention: only "computer programs as such" (see Software patent under the European Patent Convention for more information). Especially, once a invention is implemented on a computer, it is not merely an algorithm anymore and the invention is linked to the real physical world, it may present a technical character and is then not de jure excluded (even if it should pass the inventive step requirement). The expression "Computer-implemented invention" is totally appropriate and is not a doublespeak. --Edcolins 22:16, Nov 3, 2004 (UTC)
 * While I agree that the original wording is quite partisan, computer-implemented invention is clearly doublespeak, used exactly to smooth-over the (NPOV-speaking) gray area of software patents. Any program becomes a computer-implemented invention if it's implemented on a computer -- which happens for pretty much any program, and is the least-creative part of the job (it could even be OCR'd). It's just like saying that the contents of a DVD are not information once it's broadcasted on TV, since it's now connected to the real world. Perhaps a rewording should be re-added (it seems to me that simply removing this is not NPOV).

I've removed the Doublespeak entry -

"polemic for someone having a fixed position, who is not liked and can't be denounced by other means such as refuting"

- because it's inaccurate (polemic is not and never has been a euphemism, and if it were it still couldn't be a euphemism for a kind of person), whiny ("I don't like you"), and anti-intellectual ("why do people disagree with me?"), but if I'm in error and someone can justify its inclusion, then please explain the inclusion to me, because I just can't see it. --Chips Critic 03:17, 27 Dec 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Euphemism/Archive 1


text:
Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser (1552/1553 – 13 January O.S. 1599) was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of nascent Modern English verse, and he is considered one of the great poets in the English language.

Life
Edmund Spenser was born in East Smithfield, London, around the year 1552; however, there is still some ambiguity as to the exact date of his birth. His parenthood is obscure, but he was probably the son of John Spenser, a journeyman clothmaker. As a young boy, he was educated in London at the Merchant Taylors' School and matriculated as a sizar at Pembroke College, Cambridge. While at Cambridge he became a friend of Gabriel Harvey and later consulted him, despite their differing views on poetry. In 1578, he became for a short time secretary to John Young, Bishop of Rochester. In 1579, he published The Shepheardes Calender and around the same time married his first wife, Machabyas Childe. They had two children, Sylvanus (d. 1638) and Katherine.

In July 1580, Spenser went to Ireland in service of the newly appointed Lord Deputy, Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton. Spenser served under Lord Grey with Walter Raleigh at the Siege of Smerwick massacre. When Lord Grey was recalled to England, Spenser stayed on in Ireland, having acquired other official posts and lands in the Munster Plantation. Raleigh acquired other nearby Munster estates confiscated in the Second Desmond Rebellion. Sometime between 1587 and 1589, Spenser acquired his main estate at Kilcolman, near Doneraile in North Cork. He later bought a second holding to the south, at Rennie, on a rock overlooking the river Blackwater in North Cork. Its ruins are still visible today. A short distance away grew a tree, locally known as "Spenser's Oak" until it was destroyed in a lightning strike in the 1960s. Local legend claims that he penned some of The Faerie Queene under this tree.

In 1590, Spenser brought out the first three books of his most famous work, The Faerie Queene, having travelled to London to publish and promote the work, with the likely assistance of Raleigh. He was successful enough to obtain a life pension of £50 a year from the Queen. He probably hoped to secure a place at court through his poetry, but his next significant publication boldly antagonised the queen's principal secretary, Lord Burghley (William Cecil), through its inclusion of the satirical Mother Hubberd's Tale. He returned to Ireland. He was at the centre of a literary circle whose members included his lifelong friend Lodowick Bryskett and Dr. John Longe, Archbishop of Armagh.

In 1591, Spenser published a translation in verse of Joachim Du Bellay's sonnets, Les Antiquités de Rome, which had been published in 1558. Spenser's version, Ruines of Rome: by Bellay, may also have been influenced by Latin poems on the same subject, written by Jean or Janis Vitalis and published in 1576.

By 1594, Spenser's first wife had died, and in that year he married a much younger Elizabeth Boyle, a relative of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. He addressed to her the sonnet sequence Amoretti. The marriage was celebrated in Epithalamion. They had a son named Peregrine.

In 1596, Spenser wrote a prose pamphlet titled A View of the Present State of Irelande. This piece, in the form of a dialogue, circulated in manuscript, remaining unpublished until the mid-17th century. It is probable that it was kept out of print during the author's lifetime because of its inflammatory content. The pamphlet argued that Ireland would never be totally "pacified" by the English until its indigenous language and customs had been destroyed, if necessary by violence.

In 1598, during the Nine Years' War, Spenser was driven from his home by the native Irish forces of Aodh Ó Néill. His castle at Kilcolman was burned, and Ben Jonson, who may have had private information, asserted that one of his infant children died in the blaze.

In the year after being driven from his home, 1599, Spenser travelled to London, where he died at the age of forty-six – "for want of bread", according to Ben Jonson; one of Jonson's more doubtful statements, since Spenser had a payment to him authorised by the government and was due his pension. His coffin was carried to his grave, deliberately near that of Geoffrey Chaucer, in what became known as Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey by other poets, probably including Shakespeare, who threw many pens and pieces of poetry into his grave. His second wife survived him and remarried twice. His sister Sarah, who had accompanied him to Ireland, married into the Travers family, and her descendants were prominent landowners in Cork for centuries.

Rhyme and reason
Thomas Fuller, in Worthies of England, included a story where the Queen told her treasurer, William Cecil, to pay Spenser £100 for his poetry. The treasurer, however, objected that the sum was too much. She said, "Then give him what is reason". Without receiving his payment in due time, Spenser gave the Queen this quatrain on one of her progresses:

I was promis'd on a time, To have a reason for my rhyme: From that time unto this season, I receiv'd nor rhyme nor reason.

She immediately ordered the treasurer to pay Spenser the original £100.

This story seems to have attached itself to Spenser from Thomas Churchyard, who apparently had difficulty in getting payment of his pension, the only other pension Elizabeth awarded to a poet. Spenser seems to have had no difficulty in receiving payment when it was due as the pension was being collected for him by his publisher, Ponsonby.

The Shepheardes Calender
The Shepheardes Calender is Edmund Spenser's first major work, which appeared in 1579. It emulates Virgil's Eclogues of the first century BCE and the Eclogues of Mantuan by Baptista Mantuanus, a late medieval, early renaissance poet. An eclogue is a short pastoral poem that is in the form of a dialogue or soliloquy. Although all the months together form an entire year, each month stands alone as a separate poem. Editions of the late 16th and early 17th centuries include woodcuts for each month/poem, and thereby have a slight similarity to an emblem book which combines a number of self-contained pictures and texts, usually a short vignette, saying, or allegory with an accompanying illustration.

The Faerie Queene
Spenser's masterpiece is the epic poem The Faerie Queene. The first three books of The Faerie Queene were published in 1590, and the second set of three books was published in 1596. Spenser originally indicated that he intended the poem to consist of twelve books, so the version of the poem we have today is incomplete. Despite this, it remains one of the longest poems in the English language. It is an allegorical work, and can be read (as Spenser presumably intended) on several levels of allegory, including as praise of Queen Elizabeth I. In a completely allegorical context, the poem follows several knights in an examination of several virtues. In Spenser's "A Letter of the Authors", he states that the entire epic poem is "cloudily enwrapped in allegorical devises", and that the aim behind The Faerie Queene was to "fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline".

Shorter poems
Spenser published numerous relatively short poems in the last decade of the 16th century, almost all of which consider love or sorrow. In 1591, he published Complaints, a collection of poems that express complaints in mournful or mocking tones. Four years later, in 1595, Spenser published Amoretti and Epithalamion. This volume contains eighty-eight sonnets commemorating his courtship of Elizabeth Boyle. In Amoretti, Spenser uses subtle humour and parody while praising his beloved, reworking Petrarchism in his treatment of longing for a woman. Epithalamion, similar to Amoretti, deals in part with the unease in the development of a romantic and sexual relationship. It was written for his wedding to his young bride, Elizabeth Boyle. Some have speculated that the attention to disquiet, in general, reflects Spenser's personal anxieties at the time, as he was unable to complete his most significant work, The Faerie Queene. In the following year, Spenser released Prothalamion, a wedding song written for the daughters of a duke, allegedly in hopes to gain favour in the court.

The Spenserian stanza and sonnet
Spenser used a distinctive verse form, called the Spenserian stanza, in several works, including The Faerie Queene. The stanza's main metre is iambic pentameter with a final line in iambic hexameter (having six feet or stresses, known as an Alexandrine), and the rhyme scheme is ababbcbcc. He also used his own rhyme scheme for the sonnet. In a Spenserian sonnet, the last line of every quatrain is linked with the first line of the next one, yielding the rhyme scheme ababbcbccdcdee. "Men Call you Fayre" is a fine Sonnet from Amoretti. The poet presents the concept of true beauty in the poem. He addresses the sonnet to his beloved, Elizabeth Boyle, and presents his courtship. Like all Renaissance men, Edmund Spenser believed that love is an inexhaustible source of beauty and order. In this Sonnet, the poet expresses his idea of true beauty. The physical beauty will finish after a few days; it is not a permanent beauty. He emphasises beauty of mind and beauty of intellect. He considers his beloved is not simply flesh but is also a spiritual being. The poet opines that he is beloved born of heavenly seed and she is derived from fair spirit. The poet states that because of her clean mind, pure heart and sharp intellect, men call her fair and she deserves it. At the end, the poet praises her spiritual beauty and he worships her because of her Divine Soul.

Influences
Though Spenser was well-read in classical literature, scholars have noted that his poetry does not rehash tradition, but rather is distinctly his. This individuality may have resulted, to some extent, from a lack of comprehension of the classics. Spenser strove to emulate such ancient Roman poets as Virgil and Ovid, whom he studied during his schooling, but many of his best-known works are notably divergent from those of his predecessors. The language of his poetry is purposely archaic, reminiscent of earlier works such as The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer and Il Canzoniere of Petrarch, whom Spenser greatly admired.

An Anglican and a devotee of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth, Spenser was particularly offended by the anti-Elizabethan propaganda that some Catholics circulated. Like most Protestants near the time of the Reformation, Spenser saw a Catholic church full of corruption, and he determined that it was not only the wrong religion but the anti-religion. This sentiment is an important backdrop for the battles of The Faerie Queene.

Spenser was called "the Poet's Poet" by Charles Lamb, and was admired by John Milton, William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Lord Byron, Alfred Tennyson and others. Among his contemporaries Walter Raleigh wrote a commendatory poem to The Faerie Queene in 1590 in which he claims to admire and value Spenser's work more so than any other in the English language. John Milton in his Areopagitica mentions "our sage and serious poet Spenser, whom I dare be known to think a better teacher than Scotus or Aquinas". In the 18th century, Alexander Pope compared Spenser to "a mistress, whose faults we see, but love her with them all".

A View of the Present State of Irelande
In his work A View of the Present State of Irelande (1596), Spenser discussed future plans to establish control over Ireland, the most recent Irish uprising, led by Hugh O'Neill having demonstrated the futility of previous efforts. The work is partly a defence of Lord Arthur Grey de Wilton, who was appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1580, and who greatly influenced Spenser's thinking on Ireland.

The goal of the piece was to show that Ireland was in great need of reform. Spenser believed that "Ireland is a diseased portion of the State, it must first be cured and reformed, before it could be in a position to appreciate the good sound laws and blessings of the nation". In A View of the Present State of Ireland, Spenser categorises the "evils" of the Irish people into three prominent categories: laws, customs and religion. According to Spenser, these three elements worked together in creating the supposedly "disruptive and degraded people" who inhabited the country. One example given in the work is the Irish law system termed "Brehon law", which at the time trumped the established law as dictated by the Crown. The Brehon system had its own court and methods of punishing infractions committed. Spenser viewed this system as a backward custom which contributed to the "degradation" of the Irish people. A particular legal punishment viewed with distaste by Spenser was the Brehon method of dealing with murder, which was to impose an éraic (fine) on the murderer's family. From Spenser's viewpoint, the appropriate punishment for murder was capital punishment. Spenser also warned of the dangers that allowing the education of children in the Irish language would bring: "Soe that the speach being Irish, the hart must needes be Irishe; for out of the aboundance of the hart, the tonge speaketh".

He pressed for a scorched earth policy in Ireland, noting its effectiveness in the Second Desmond Rebellion:

"Out of everye corner of the woode and glenns they came creepinge forth upon theire handes, for theire legges could not beare them; they looked Anatomies [of] death, they spake like ghostes, crying out of theire graves; they did eate of the carrions, happye wheare they could find them, yea, and one another soone after, in soe much as the verye carcasses they spared not to scrape out of theire graves; and if they found a plott of water-cresses or shamrockes, theyr they flocked as to a feast… in a shorte space there were none almost left, and a most populous and plentyfull countrye suddenly lefte voyde of man or beast: yett sure in all that warr, there perished not manye by the sworde, but all by the extreamytie of famine ... they themselves had wrought."

List of works
1569:
 * Jan van der Noodt's A Theatre for Worldlings, including poems translated into English by Spenser from French sources, published by Henry Bynneman in London

1579:
 * The Shepheardes Calender, published under the pseudonym "Immerito" (entered into the Stationers' Register in December )
 * Iambicum Trimetrum

1590:
 * The Faerie Queene, Books 1–3

1591:
 * Complaints, Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie (entered into the Stationer's Register in 1590 ), includes:
 * "The Ruines of Time"
 * "The Teares of the Muses"
 * "Virgil's Gnat"
 * "Prosopopoia, or Mother Hubberds Tale"
 * "Ruines of Rome: by Bellay"
 * "Muiopotmos, or the Fate of the Butterflie"
 * "Visions of the Worlds Vanitie"
 * "The Visions of Bellay"
 * "The Visions of Petrarch"

1592:
 * Axiochus, a translation of a pseudo-Platonic dialogue from the original Ancient Greek; published by Cuthbert Burbie; attributed to "Edw: Spenser" but the attribution is uncertain
 * Daphnaïda. An Elegy upon the Death of the Noble and Vertuous Douglas Howard, Daughter and Heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and Wife of Arthure Gorges Esquier (published in London in January, according to one source; another source gives 1591 as the year ) It was dedicated to Helena, Marchioness of Northampton.

1595:
 * Amoretti and Epithalamion, containing:
 * "Amoretti"
 * "Epithalamion"
 * Astrophel. A Pastorall Elegie vpon the Death of the Most Noble and Valorous Knight, Sir Philip Sidney
 * Colin Clouts Come Home Againe

1596: Posthumous:
 * Fowre Hymnes dedicated from the court at Greenwich; published with the second edition of Daphnaida
 * Prothalamion
 * The Faerie Queene, Books 4–6
 * ''Babel, Empress of the East – a dedicatory poem prefaced to Lewes Lewkenor's The Commonwealth of Venice, 1599.
 * 1609: Two Cantos of Mutabilitie published together with a reprint of The Faerie Queene
 * 1611: First folio edition of Spenser's collected works
 * 1633: A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande, a prose treatise on the reformation of Ireland, first published by Sir James Ware (historian) entitled The Historie of Ireland (Spenser's work was entered into the Stationer's Register in 1598 and circulated in manuscript but not published until it was edited by Ware)

Editions

 * Edmund Spenser, Selected Letters and Other Papers. Edited by Christopher Burlinson and Andrew Zurcher (Oxford, OUP, 2009).
 * Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (Longman-Annotated-English Poets, 2001, 2007) Edited by A. C. Hamilton, Text Edited by Yamashita and Toshiyuki Suzuki.

Digital archive
Washington University in St. Louis professor Joseph Lowenstein, with the assistance of several undergraduate students, has been involved in creating, editing, and annotating a digital archive of the first publication of poet Edmund Spenser's collective works in 100 years. A large grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities has been given to support this ambitious project centralized at Washington University with support from other colleges in the United States.

title: Edmund Spenser


text:
Talk:Encyclopedia

A correction I cannot perform due to permissions
It says "Banglapedia (on matters relevant for Bengal)". It's not Bengal, it's Bangladesh.
 * Done. Thanks for the tip. groupuscule (talk) 0 7:41, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Ye but that’s the name of the encyclopedia ShivanshPlays1 (talk) 21:12, 11 September 2021 (UTC)

Encyclopedic
It seems that encyclopedic redirects here. Given that WP:MOS often mentions encyclopedic as a way to determine what should, or should not, be included, it would be nice to have a place specifically for that. What I am specifically interested in now, is that Wikipedia is not a travel guide, but I suspect that there are other distinctions to be made. Gah4 (talk) 05:27, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

 * I like your thought about including encyclopedic as something people might want to know about. I'm going to expand a bit before suggesting why it might not fit in the article. Encyclopedic is more often than not, used to to describe something rather than a thing itself. What you may be thinking of with WP:MOS is an/the encyclopedic style. McHenry talks about it this way, although its not really common. It is more usually to talk about encyclopedic projects, encyclopedic texts, or encyclopedic novels. In the first case there are things like Otlet's Mundaneum, Well's World Brain, or Bush's Memex machine; all things kind of like encyclopedias but don't fit the typical expectation, usually because of the technology they use. The second case is often used by historians who don't want to be anachronistic. There were no books understood by their authors as "encyclopedia" before the 15th/16th century. As a work around, contemporary historians call books that are kind of like encyclopedias, but were not thought of as such at the time, encyclopedic texts. This has also been used to describe the Bible and other spiritual texts. And then there are encyclopedic novels that are written with a kind of maximalism (opposite of minimalism) that try to convey the aesthetic of the encyclopedic. The Library of Babel, Ulysses (novel), Don Quixote, Infinite Jest are all examples of this.

 * So there's a lot there about encyclopedic but based on the variety of cases of how the term is used, I don't think it fits in this article because it exceeds meaning "an encyclopedia". Could it be its own article that is briefly mentioned in this one? I'm not sure. Textaural (talk) 04:03, 20 January 2018 (UTC)
 * More specifically, it is WP:NOT. So, not whether it is an actual encyclopedia, or something like an encyclopedia, but what kind of things should be in it in either case. Even more specifically, I was wondering about WP:NOTTRAVEL. There, one example is not to include restaurant recommendations.  Gah4 (talk) 04:58, 21 January 2018 (UTC)

 * So are you thinking about adding a section that focuses on how different encyclopedias often self-describe their own encyclopedic style? I think that would be valuable contribution to the article as it is a very common thing for encyclopedias to describe what they do and do not cover. Could you draft up a sentence or paragraph of what you are envisioning? Textaural (talk) 15:28, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

Suggestion
Change 'which' to 'that' in the following sentence, as the clause is restrictive and necessary for the meaning of the sentence:

 * Generally speaking, unlike dictionary entries THAT focus on linguistic information about words, such as their meaning, pronunciation, use, and grammatical forms, encyclopedia articles focus on factual information concerning the subject named in the article’s title. Pursuedbybaer (talk) 18:14, 18 December 2017 (UTC)

in the lead,
The appearance of digital and open-source versions in the 20th century has vastly expanded the accessibility, authorship, readership, and variety of encyclopedia entries and called into question the idea of what an encyclopedia is[citation needed] and the relevance of applying to such dynamic productions the traditional criteria for assembling and evaluating print encyclopedias.[citation needed] replace with :
 * Digital and open source versions of encyclopedias began to appear in the late 20th century. The 21st century has expanded the accessibility and variety of encyclopedia entries, broadening user tools of research.Deermouse (talk) 16:25, 27 March 2018 (UTC)
 * cite: search Wikipedia "open source encyclopedia" ++30,000 hitsDeermouse (talk) 16:30, 27 March 2018 (UTC)

Plz necessory to correct that palal tribes as baloch tribe buledi. Palal is buledi tribe. Plz correct it Shakeelpalal (talk) 19:06, 30 May 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 20 May 2018
I suggest that a link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fictional_encyclopedias be placed under the  "See also" also section. Some, possibly many users may not be aware of the use of Fictional Encyclopedias as literary devices. The examples listed in the category https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fictional_encyclopedias could well inspire individuals to create entire fictional encyclopedias or use them as devices in their own works. Emoritz2017 (talk) 23:58, 20 May 2018 (UTC)
 * ❌ Categories generally aren't linked to within the "See also" section. Nanophosis (talk) 01:41, 21 May 2018 (UTC)

Definition
The definition in the first sentence and the cited source, do not match. The source does not mention the term "information". So according to the source it should be:"An encyclopedia or encyclopaedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge from either all branches or from a particular field or discipline."--Daceloh (talk) 19:30, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

21st century
The 21st century section does not meet WP's standards of style. It is written like an advert and does not have a neutral point of view. --Roly (talk) 17:40, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
 * It is both advertizing Wikipedia and comparing it with Britannica. I need to fix this. —Yours sincerely, Soumyabrata (talk • subpages) 12:01, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

Proper etymology of "encyclopedia" is disputed.
In the "Etymology" section, the word "encyclopedia" comes from a scribal error of two Greek words. Howeber, in the "Renaissance" section, the word "encyclopedia" was coined by 16th-century humanists who misread copies of their texts of Pliny and Quintilian, and combined the two Greek words into one word. Please fix this! —Yours sincerely, Soumyabrata (talk • subpages) 11:55, 1 September 2019 (UTC)

have correction, cant' edit
"transliterated enkyklios paedia" ACTUALLY that's "paideia".

XX — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.22.90.90 (talk) 14:30, 4 February 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 23 February 2020
I need to add a finishing touch Redrose99 (talk) 10:10, 23 February 2020 (UTC)
 * You can suggest edits here on this talk page on the form "Please change X to Y" citing reliable sources. – Thjarkur (talk) 11:41, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

"Enkyklopaideia" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Enkyklopaideia. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. 1234qwer1234qwer4 (talk) 23:43, 8 March 2020 (UTC)

Encylopedia
It is a book where you can use to find about things Casory (talk) 19:13, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 29 May 2020
42.115.19.209 (talk) 16:06, 29 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Naypta ☺ | ✉ talk page | 16:10, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

History
How exactly has the genre of encyclopedia changed over the millennia? There is some acknowledgement of this, but I find it hard to believe the stated changes are the only ones over that length of time. I might be wrong, but a greater focus on those changes would clear it up for skeptics like me even if I'm wrong. Monkeybomber (talk) 03:28, 1 October 2020 (UTC)

Any takers ?
Greetings,

A bit different topic. We all know Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. While every 11 January Wikipedia adds up one more year to it's age, encyclopedias and Compendiums too add up a year more to their much longer history.

When did you last visited wikipedia articles Encyclopedia Compendium and History of encyclopedias? What is their status ? When I visited those the last two are tagged for lack citations. In Encyclopedia section too almost six paragraphs are missing in citations.
 * 1) After reading all three articles on Wikipedia as a reader I do not get information what a reader of an encyclopedia is supposed to expect from encyclopedia or readers part many commercial encyclopedias might have done marketing putting those points forward so can one find any such information in any source? (I am not expecting discourses of Wikipedians but discourses of Non Wikipedian intellectuals or marketeers of traditional encyclopedias.
 * 2) Another missing point is how an encyclopedic entry needs to be written features tools challenges etc. again not Wikipedian point of views but editorial or intellectual discourses of traditional encyclopedias writers or editors.
 * 3) How an ideal Compendium and Encyclopedia content quality is supposed to look like (beyond it's alphabetical etc organizational aspects) again not Wikipedian point of views but editorial or intellectual discourses of traditional encyclopedias writers or editors with critique of some Compendium and Encyclopedia.
 * 4) Is there any (Non Wikipedia) source that would say or suggest Compendium and Encyclopedia as  'up to date' state of information / knowledge ?

Actually one anon IP helped with a list of sources too on Wikipedia:Reference desk/Humanities. If topic interests some one following is list of sources with which one can support the articles.

 * Sanford, Eva (1949) Famous Latin Encyclopaedias
 * Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin (1952) A History of Bibliographic Classification in China
 * Preece, Warren (1965) The Organization of Knowledge and the Planning of Encyclopaedias: The Case of the "Encyclopaedia Britannica"
 * Sullivan, Lawrence (1990) Circumscribing Knowledge: Encyclopedias in Historical Perspective
 * Burke, Peter (1996) Reflections on the history of encyclopaedias
 * Binkley, Peter (ed.) (1996) Pre-Modern Encyclopaedic Texts.
 * Fowler, Robert (1996) Encyclopaedias: definitions and theoretical problems
 * Twomey, Michael (1996) Towards a reception history of western medieval encyclopaedias in England before 1500
 * Harvey, Steven (1998) The Medieval Hebrew Encyclopedias of Science and Philosophy
 * Stockwell, Foster (2000) A History of Information Storage and Retrieval
 * Toshio, Yokoyama (2007) Some notes on the history of Japanese traditional household encyclopedias
 * Würth, Stefanie (2008) Historiography and Pseudo-History
 * Burke, Peter (2013). A Social History of Knowledge.
 * Hope this is a helpful start. If you can’t read any of the paywalled articles, you can request them at WP:RX because you are using them to improve Wikipedia.

Any takers for the task?

Thanks and warm regards.

Bookku (talk) 06:31, 4 December 2020 (UTC)

Contemporary usage
Spelt as encyclopaedia exclusively in Australia — Preceding unsigned comment added by 140.168.79.2 (talk) 23:10, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

In Britain, and the Commonwealth, the word is spelled: encyclopædia, and also encyclopaedia. NonhumanAnimalAutonomy (talk) 13:02, 19 April 2021 (UTC)

Merge proposal
An internet encyclopedia is just another kind of encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia article is not really long enough to justify having two separate articles, especially considering the poor quality of prose in the Online encyclopedia article. I originally redirected Online encyclopedia, but an IP user has reverted me. CD-ROM encyclopedia is an unsourced two sentence stub. Hemiauchenia (talk) 12:57, 8 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Online encyclopedia → Encyclopedia
 * CD-ROM encyclopedia → Encyclopedia

 * I respectfully oppose.

 * You stated "An internet encyclopedia is just another kind of encyclopedia", as an argument not to have two separate articles, leaving off your conclusion. Let's look at the form of this statement and replace "internet encyclopedia" with y and "encyclopedia" with x, and add the conclusion you alluded to. This results in "A y is just another form of x and therefore they should be merged into one article". Now we can test the soundness of this argument by plugging in other article titles for x and y, and we get....
 * A St. Bernard is just another kind of dog and therefore they should be merged into one article.
 * Internet art is just another kind of art, and therefore they should be merged into one article.
 * Geometry is just another kind of math, and therefore they should be merged into one article.
 * Math is just another kind of formal science, and therefore they should be merged into one article.
 * Formal science is just another kind of science, and therefore they should be merged into one article.
 * Science is just another kind of knowledge, and therefore they should be merged into one article.
 * If you make this statement for every subtopic and its parent topic, you would eventually wind up with a single article (knowledge), with all other topics included.
 * That a topic is a subtopic of another subject, is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a merge to take place.
 * You also mentioned that "The encyclopedia article isn't long enough to have two separate articles." As we can see from Category:Encyclopedias, not only is the subject "encyclopedia" long enough to have two articles, it is already divided into hundreds of articles.
 * The online encyclopedia article delves into the intricacies of that type of encyclopedia, and makes it obvious that there is more erudite detail coming. It might be best not to bog down the main encyclopedia article with that minutia, and keep it as an overview of encyclopedias in general. In the spirit of Summary style, as a major subtopic with much territory to be covered, "online encyclopedia" warrants its own article.
 * WP:SPLIT recommends an article size of around 50K, and there are plenty of subtopics not yet covered in this parent article, summaries of which will easily push it to 50K. "Encyclopedia", by its very nature is encyclopedic in scope. You could fill an encyclopedia with information about it.
 * Encyclopedia has other issues that warrant attention. There are many sections missing. More urgent is that the history section is a content fork of History of encyclopedias, and vice versa, as they share nearly the same depth and diverge in treatment of the subject.

 * I hope you find the above observations useful. Sincerely,  —  The Transhumanist   19:21, 30 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Do you have an opinion on the CD-ROM encyclopedia article? It's currently a two sentence unsourced stub. Hemiauchenia (talk) 22:46, 30 August 2021 (UTC)
 * I have not yet formed an opinion on that article, but I noticed that it appears to have ten sentences. Concerning the unsourced comment you made, how does sourced/unsourced pertain to which page the content is published on? It would be just as unsourced if it were merged into the encyclopedia article. I encourage you to dive in and develop these articles. That is another way of resolving your concerns. I hope to see you in the edit histories, and look forward to working with you in interactive editing. Cheers.   —   — The Transhumanist   01:34, 2 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Regarding the merge proposal: These are types of encyclopedias, but the current way that things are is perfectly fine as well. Just providing my own opinion, of course. I don't care too much what you do, I just read articles and make the occasional minor fix. Qwerty3521 -- Message me here 16:14, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

 * Merge CD-ROM encyclopedia → Encyclopedia - This is hardly a separate topic justifying a separate article. It's a minor subtopic.
 * Merge Online encyclopedia → Encyclopedia - I feel less strongly about this merge, since Online Encyclopedias are a significant enough topic to have their own article. However, there are some messy aspects to the current split. Digital encyclopedia actually redirects to a section of the Encyclopedia article. However there is a hatnote at the top of the Online encyclopedia article that says:  This confusion is because every encyclopedia is in digital form. It's just that some encyclopedias are printed and others are made available online, and many printed encyclopedias are also available in digital form either online or in CD-ROM format. It's certainly confusing to have CD-ROM encyclopedia and Online encyclopedia as a separate articles and yet redirect Digital encyclopedia to the main Encylopedia article. I don't see a clean way to split these topics apart frankly.  I think the topics should be merged.  Whether an encyclopedia is available online or in a CD-ROM format is a question of distribution and access. It doesn't make the dictionary fundamentally a different kind of encyclopedia. For example, Britannica is now exclusively available online, but it used to be available exclusively in print, and later in multiple formats. It's not fundamentally a different kind of encyclopedia.  The decision to abandon print versions was a business choice about distribution and access for customers.Coastside (talk) 17:32, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

 * Oppose per Ytpks896 (talk) 07:23, 17 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose per . Also because the article has 10 citations and is clearly far different than a normal encyclopedia. --The Tips of Apmh (talk) 13:55, 29 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose per above. --SHB2000 (talk) 23:04, 22 December 2021 (UTC)
 * Oppose Per . These articles are valuable, particularly for future generations who may not understand the importance of the CD-ROM and bound encyclopedia. Thriley (talk) 20:08, 5 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I would like to bring up a general social aspect about a merge. Many people who grew up with Wikipedia and other largely digital, online encyclopedias (e.g. subject/field specific encyclopedias), including myself, are less familiar with print encyclopedia. It may be important to at least link the article for online encyclopedia to the online encyclopedia section to provide a reference to this body of knowledge. mentions aspects of the liminal nature of the encyclopedia as well that speak to this public understanding. I do think it's important to keep them intertwined to afford a comprehensive knowledge of the the history of the development of the encyclopedia (in line with improving public understanding of the sum knowledge of the encyclopedia). I am not necessarily 'opposing' or 'supporting,' but I think understanding public perception is vital here. Breadyornot (talk) 22:08, 25 January 2022 (UTC)

Content fork
The history section and History of encyclopedias are both extensive and have diverged into two distinct treatments of the subject. Summary style may apply. Sincerely,  — The Transhumanist   17:25, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

 * I've truncated the section, and am in the process of merging the content to the subarticle.  — The Transhumanist   19:21, 30 August 2021 (UTC)
 * ✅ Merge of the history section into History of encyclopedias is (for the most part) complete. Leftover text that I wasn't sure what to do with, I've posted at Talk:History of encyclopedias. That leaves the history section of this article almost empty, and so a summary needs to be rebuilt.  — The Transhumanist   22:38, 30 August 2021 (UTC)
 * ✅ The History section has been rebuilt, from paragraphs copy/pasted from History of encyclopedias.  — The Transhumanist   23:34, 30 August 2021 (UTC)

"Free encyclopedia" listed at Redirects for discussion
A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Free encyclopedia. The discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 September 27 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. EthanGaming7640 (talk) 19:09, 27 September 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 2 January 2022
Ndamulelo Netshivhambe Ndamulelomatamela (talk) 09:13, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Ndamulelo Netshivhambe Ndamulelomatamela (talk) 09:14, 2 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Cannolis (talk) 09:50, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Encyclopedia
The encyclopedia gives us factual information. Topics contained in an encyclopedia are arranged in alphabetical order. Important words in the topic will help us find what we want to look for.

An encyclopedia is a set of books.It gives information on all branches of knowledge.Sometimes, information given are of only one subject.Topics or subjects are usually arranged in alphabetical order. 112.210.193.180 (talk) 11:10, 27 January 2022 (UTC)

Encyclopédie ommitted from history
Denis Diderot's Encyclopédie is missing from the history section despite it predating Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopédie had important significance in promoting the Radical Enlightenment and subsequent democratic revolutions. 172.58.27.60 (talk) 05:12, 9 March 2022 (UTC)

Encyclopaedia Britannica
Look, this article from Encyclopaedia Britannica did it better than us! CactiStaccingCrane (talk) 14:41, 11 April 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Encyclopedia