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Euphemism

https://books.google.com/books?id=69ncOM8ENdYC&pg=PA292

But on balance my favourite piece of nineteenth-century Grundyism is Leigh Hunt’s revision of the insult directed at the Cook by Chaucer’s Manciple, ‘Thy breath full sour stinketh.’ He emended this to, ‘Thy breath resembleth not sweet marjoram.’

— Philip Howard, The State of the Language, 1985

December 13, 2023December 12, 2023 | Literature · Society

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Futility Closet is a collection of entertaining curiosities in history, literature, language, art, philosophy, and mathematics, designed to help you waste time as enjoyably as possible.

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