--- title: Soft words for hard things: death and dying, illness and the body — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: death and dying, illness and the body», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Euphemisms for death have many jobs: they comfort a family, honour soldiers, sell funerals and make d --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/) / Soft words for hard things: death and… # Soft words for hard things: death and dying, illness and the body Lesson 3 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 21 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/0/) — Euphemisms for death have many jobs: they comfort a family, honour soldiers, sell funerals and make dark jokes. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/1/) — Businesses rename sad things to sound gentler: an undertaker becomes a "funeral director" and a cemetery becomes a "memorial park". - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/2/) — For soldiers, words like "the fallen" and "made the ultimate sacrifice" show respect for those who died in war. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/3/) — Euphemisms also soften illness: people say they are "under the weather" instead of "ill", and older people said "the big C" because they were afraid even to say "cancer". - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/5/) — "Met an untimely end" means died young or died violently. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/6/) — "Took his own life" means killed himself; it is the gentle way to speak of suicide. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/7/) — "The big sleep" means death; it is a humorous, tough-sounding phrase from crime stories. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/8/) — "The dearly departed" means the dead; it is polite and is sometimes used jokingly. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/9/) — "Bit the big one" means died; it is American slang. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/10/) — "On his last legs" means close to dying or worn out; a car or a sofa can also be on its last legs. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/11/) — "Memorial park" is an American word for a cemetery. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/12/) — "Funeral director" is the official name for an undertaker, the person who arranges funerals. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/13/) — "Pre-need arrangements" is American funeral-business jargon for paying for your own funeral in advance. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/14/) — "Celebration of life" means a funeral or memorial service with a cheerful mood. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/16/) — "Made the ultimate sacrifice" means died in war while serving one's country. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/18/) — "Turned up his toes" means died; it is old-fashioned. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/19/) — "Brown bread" means dead; it is London rhyming slang ("bread" rhymes with "dead"). - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/20/) — "Assumed room temperature" means died; it is a dark American joke, because a dead body cools down. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/21/) — "Flatlined" means died or the heart stopped, because the heart monitor shows a flat line; a business can also flatline. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/22/) — "Under the weather" means slightly ill. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/24/) — "The big C" means cancer. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: death and dying](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/2-death-official-and-slang/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: illness, disability and the body](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/4-illness-disability-and-babies/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)