What euphemisms are used to say “funeral” and “the dead person who’s funeral it is”?

16 comments

1. Euphemisms, you say. Perhaps:

   the dead person who’s funeral it is:

   *der/die Dahingegangene* (he/she who went to there), also semi-officially

   the funeral:

   *die Bodenhochzeit* (the floor-wedding), never officially, used humorously

2. Euphemisms are often used to refer to death and everything connected with it: instead of ‘morire’ (dying) we say *andarsene* (going away), *addormentarsi* (falling asleep), *lasciare il mondo* (leaving the world), *non vedere più il sole* (no longer seeing the sun), *volare in cielo* (flying in the sky), etc. Even the names of the dead are avoided: *il defunto* (the deceased) is originally a euphemism; *lo scomparso* (the disappeared), *il caro perduto* (the dear lost) retain this value. As for synonyms for funeral, they do exist: *esequie* (Not very euphemistic), *estreme onoranze* and *estremi onori* (extreme honours), *estremo saluto* (extreme greeting).

3. Not many euphemisms for the funeral, except maybe “zur Ruhe betten” (“to lay to rest”, “betten” literally translates to “to lay down on a bed”, implying sleep).

   We do have a lot of ways to say “to die”, though.

   “Verscheiden”, from “scheiden”, to split/ to leave. This also leads to “der/die Verschiedene” (“the departet”)

   “Über den Jordan gehen”, “to cross the river Jordan”, the river may be swapped for another one, usually for humourous effect, e.g. “über die Wupper gehen”.

   “Entschlafen”, from “schlafen”, “to sleep”.

   “Die Radieschen von unten betrachten”, being buried, lit. “to look at the radishes from below”.

4. There are euphemisms, in Spanish they are the same as in Italian, in which other user has given some examples.

   But to be honest, I would say that in Spain (or at least where I live) people don’t use euphemisms to talk about death. People say that someone has died (*muerto* of the verb *morir*, “to die” in English) or a more formal word (*fallecido* of the verb *fallecer*, “to perish” in English).

5. Going to a funeral can be *donar (l’últim) adéu/comiat*, “to give (the last) goodbye/farewell”.

   A dead person is an *albat*, “whitened, pale”.

   The most usual euphemisms for saying that someone has died are *ha faltat*, which is kind of like “he hasn’t come/shown up” (like showing up to work or a reunion), and *se(‘ns) n’ha anat*, “he’s gone away (from us)”.
   Offensive euphemisms include *criant malves*, “growing mallows” (the equivalent of pushing up daisies); *donant de menjar als cucs*, “feeding the maggots”; or *menjant terra*, “eating earth”.

6. For the funeral we say that the deceased has been “given to the earth” or “sent off on their last journey”. When talking about the deceased, one would normally say “rahmetli”, which means something like “person who has God’s grace/forgiveness”.

   Edit: If you don’t like the deceased person, you can say “tahtali köyü boyladi” -they ended up in the wooden village.

7. For the funeral:

   * the last farewell (ο τελευταίος αποχαιρετισμός)
   * the last journey (το τελευταίο ταξίδι)

   For the dead person:

   * the forgiven (ο συγχωρεμένος)
   * the extincted (ο εκλιπών)
   * the one always in memory (ο αείμνηστος)
   * the one who had good luck (ο μακαρίτης) *- this one is hard to translate*

8. I can’t think of many euphemisms for “funeral”, only *enterro* (burial) comes to mind. There might be more, but I’m drawing a blank.

   For the deceased there are a handful of euphemisms, but they’re formal in nature.

   We have *falecido* (hard to translate, it’s akin to “to be missing; to fail; to become scarce”, it shares the same root word as falir=to bankrupt);

   *defunto* (defunct);

   *decesso* (deceassed), which is very rarely used, if ever at all.

9. I don’t think we’ve got euphemisms for the funeral itself.

   A dead person can be referred to as:

   – nebožtík/nebožka – “the poor/unfortunate one”, this might be falling out of use
   – zesnulý/zesnulá – sorta like “one who has fallen asleep”

10. Edesmennyt – the one that left before us (usually translated to deceased)
    Nukkua pois – to sleep away (as in from this life)
    Vainaja/Vainaa – the dead one, but without mention of actual death. From the germanic word weinen.

    Then we have more crude words, because you know, black humour. Like kuoppajaiset, but I don’t really know how to translate this. Kuoppa means a hole (so the grave) and kuopata is to bury. The ending describes a gathering or such. So… A hole party. Some might see this as rude, but I don’t. Also potkaista tyhjää means to kick (into?) empty, meaning you kick the air and fall on your back. Kick the bucket.

11. For the funeral we sometimes use:

    *viimeinen matka* (the last journey)

    For the event of death:

    *nukkua pois* (literally to sleep away, no matter if they passed away sleeping or not)

    *siirtyä ajasta iäisyyteen* (to go from time to eternity)

    *vaihtaa hiippakuntaa* (to change the diocese)

12. In French 🇫🇷 there’s a lovely “manger les pissenlits par la racine”… Eating dandelions from thevroot up”. So, you know, under the ground

13. The only one that we really use is when someone passes away we say preselio/preselila je. It means he/she moved meaning they are in another place.

14. There’s ‘sending off’, but it’s informal, and there’s not really a taboo around saying the word funeral.

    But we have ‘the deceased’, who ‘passed away’ (or informally, ‘kicked the bucket’). Other expressions are ‘pushing up the daisies’ and ‘six feet under’.

15. The Irish can be very blunt about death. I was once on a local bus in some very remote part of Ireland and it came into a village where a funeral was going on. The driver stopped the bus and shouted at some guy hanging around, “Who’s dead?”

16. Simply, there aren’t any euphemisms for them in Serbia.