Euphemism as a core feature of patientese: A comparative study between English and French

Abstract

The purpose of this lexicological study is to present a typology of patients’ euphemizing lay denominations of medical terms illustrated by examples in English and French. Various textbooks and lexicons dealing with English and French for medical purposes served as corpora. The euphemisms were classified according to the three semantic processes by means of which they were created: widening (Eng.