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partake of food (of refreshment), to refresh oneself, 
to break bread. 
There are words which are easy targets for euphemistic substitu-
tion. These include words associated with drunkenness, which are 
very numerous. 
The adjective drunk, for instance, has a great number of such sub-
stitutes, some of them "delicate", but most comical. E. g. intoxicated 
(form.), under the influence (form.), tipsy, mellow, fresh, high, merry, 
flustered, overcome, full (coll.), drunk as a lord (coll.), drunk as an 
owl (coll.), boiled (sl.), fried (sl.), tanked (sl.), tight (sl.), stiff (sl.), 
pickled (sl.), soaked (sl.), three sheets to the wind (sl.), high as a kite 
(sl.), half-seas-over (sl.), etc. 
The following brief quotation from P.G. Wodehouse gives two 
more examples of words belonging to the same group: 
"Motty was under the surface. Completely sozzled." 
(From Pight-Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse) 
In the following extracts from P. G. Wodehouse we find slang 
substitutes for two other "unpleasant" words: prison and to imprison. 
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"Oh, no, he isn't ill," I said, "and as regards accidents, it de-
pends on what you call an accident. He's in chokey." 
"In what?" 
"In prison." 
"... And now Mr. Sipperley is in the jug... He couldn't come 
himself, because he was jugged for biffing a cop on Boat-Race 
Night." 
(Ibid.) 
Euphemisms may, of course, be used due to genuine concern not 
to hurt someone's feelings. For instance, a liar can be described as a 
person who does not always strictly tell the truth and a stupid man 
can be said to be not exactly brilliant. 
All the euphemisms that have been described so far are used to 
avoid the so-called social taboos. Their use, as has already been said, 
is inspired by social convention. 
Superstitious taboos gave rise to the use of other type of euphe-
misms. The reluctance to call things by their proper names is also 
typical of this type of euphemisms, but this time it is based on a 
deeply-rooted subconscious fear. 
Superstitious taboos have their roots in the distant past of man-
kind when people believed that there was a supernatural link between 
a name and the object or creature it represented. Therefore, all the 
words denoting evil spirits, dangerous animals, or the powers of na-
ture were taboo. If uttered, it was believed that unspeakable disasters 
would result not only for the speaker but also for those near him. That 
is why all creatures, objects and phenomena threatening danger were 
referred to in a round-about descriptive way. So, a dangerous animal 
might be described as the one-lurking-in-the-wood and a mortal dis-
ease as the black death. Euphemisms are probably the oldest type of 
synonyms, for 
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it is reasonable to assume that superstitions which caused real fear 
called for the creation of euphemisms long before the need to de-
scribe things in their various aspects or subtle shades caused the ap-
pearance of other synonyms. 
The Christian religion also made certain words taboo. The proverb 
Speak of the devil and he will appear must have been used and taken 
quite literally when it was first used, and the fear of calling the devil 
by name was certainly inherited from ancient superstitious beliefs. So, 
the word devil became taboo, and a number of euphemisms were sub-
stitutes for it: the Prince of Darkness, the black one, the evil one,