--- title: Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness», a lesson of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Calling someone stupid or mad to their face is rude and hurts, so people wrap the idea in softer or funnier words. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/) [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: stupidity… # Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness Lesson 36 of the euphemisms course of Mova's primary school: 22 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/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/0/) — Calling someone stupid or mad to their face is rude and hurts, so people wrap the idea in softer or funnier words. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/1/) — Some of these words are kind: a teacher who says a boy is "more practical than academic" means school work is hard for him, but he is good with his hands. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/2/) — Others are jokes that paint a picture: "a screw loose" makes a person sound like a machine with one part wobbling, and "thick as two short planks" compares a slow thinker to pieces of wood. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/3/) — Many old words for madness are jokes, and real mental illness is no joke, so a kind person does not use them about someone who is truly unwell. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/4/) — To understand these phrases, ask: is the speaker being gentle, polite, or making fun? - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/5/) — "A bit dim" means rather stupid; it is everyday British English and sounds softer than "stupid". - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/6/) — "Thick as two short planks" means very stupid; it is a British joke. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/7/) — "Intellectually challenged" is a jokey way of saying stupid, copying the style of official polite words. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/8/) — "An ID-ten-T error" means a mistake the user made himself because he was being an idiot: written down, ID10T spells "idiot"; it is computer jokers' talk. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/9/) — "Not the most academic" means not clever at school work; it is a polite way to put it. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/10/) — "More practical than academic" means not good at school or books, but often good at doing things with the hands. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/11/) — "Not firing on all cylinders" means not thinking clearly, like an engine running badly; often said about someone tired or ill. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/12/) — "Has a screw loose" means is a bit mad or acts strangely. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/13/) — "Off one's rocker" means mad; it is slang. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/14/) — "Round the bend" means mad or very annoyed; "you're driving me round the bend" means you are making me crazy with annoyance. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/15/) — It is British. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/16/) — "Round the twist" means mad, just like "round the bend"; it is British. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/19/) — "Not all there" means not quite sane (sane means thinking in a normal, clear way, not mad), or a bit slow in the head. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/21/) — "Eccentric" is a polite word for a person who is odd or strange in a harmless way. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/22/) — "A real character" is a polite way to call someone odd, unusual or difficult. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/23/) — "Marches to the beat of a different drum" means is very unusual and does things his own way; it is American and often kind. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/36-dim-and-round-the-bend/24/) — "Lost his marbles" means gone mad or very confused. - ← previous: [Soft words for hard things: failure and mistakes and stupidity and madness](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/35-mistakes-and-stupidity/) - next →: [Soft words for hard things: stupidity and madness and rudeness and swearing](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/37-bats-and-gosh/) - ↑ back to [Euphemisms](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/)