History Main / LessEmbarrassingTerm

** From a U.S. standpoint, war isn't illegal. However, only Congress has the power to officially declare war, but doing so grants the president the ability to do...well...a lot of things no one really wants him to be able to do. Thus, Congress avoids declaring war at all costs, and so it isn't "technically" a war. Despite this, certain conflicts have drawn the ire of Congress, who felt that they should have been consulted, or that the president overreached. All propaganda aside, a war is a very specific kind of armed conflict, defined by international law. Many modern conflicts are really not wars but rather uprisings. Think difference between murder and a manslaughter that is opaque to Joe Average but pretty important in court.

* Look up the ''official'' colors of any American sports team and it's safe to say that "yellow" will always be called "gold" instead. Because honestly, who wants to be known as the team that wears yellow?

* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8786130/2/Scooby-Kratt Scooby Kratt,]]'' which is a crossover between ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' and ''WesternAnimation/WildKratt'', Velma insists her disease is not a cold, but rather a "viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract which affects primarily the nose".

** The colors of the [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootballPower5Conferences University of Michigan]] are ''maize'' and blue, thank you very much.

** The colors of the University of Michigan are ''maize'' and blue, thank you very much.

** The flag of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a black-gold-black tricolor. The UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague's Pittsburgh Steelers [[note]] Pirates from 1933-1939, when it was common for NFL teams to share names with their UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueBaseball counterparts [[/note]] have worn the colors since their inception;[[note]]except for the two seasons during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII when they merged operations with the Eagles in 1943 and the Cardinals in 1944, and the merged teams wore those uniforms instead of the Steelers'[[/note]] MLB's Pirates joined them in 1948, and the UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague's Penguins joined them in 1980,[[note]]riding the coattails of the Pirates' and Steelers' championships[[/note]] much to the consternation of the Boston Bruins, who also wear black and gold. The Penguins defended their change by citing the NHL Pirates (1925-30), who wore the colors for their first three seasons, at a time when the Bruins wore brown.

* The Blackpool FC kit is tangerine, not the luminous orange that it appears. Similarly, from their inception in 1966 to 2012, the secondary color for the Miami Dolphins was coral, not orange. They've since dropped that pretense.

** The colors of the UsefulNotes/UniversityOfMichigan are ''maize'' and blue, thank you very much.
** The New Orleans Saints, however, really do wear a champagne-gold color (officially called "old gold") and not yellow, but their NCAA counterparts the LSU Tigers play it straight.
** The flag of the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a black-gold-black tricolor. The NFL's Pittsburgh Steelers [[note]] Pirates from 1933-1939, when it was common for NFL teams to share names with their MLB counterparts [[/note]] have worn the colors since their inception;[[note]]except for the two seasons during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII when they merged operations with the Eagles in 1943 and the Cardinals in 1944, and the merged teams wore those uniforms instead of the Steelers'[[/note]] MLB's Pirates joined them in 1948, and the NHL's Penguins joined them in 1980,[[note]]riding the coattails of the Pirates' and Steelers' championships[[/note]] much to the consternation of the Boston Bruins, who also wear black and gold. The Penguins defended their change by citing the NHL Pirates (1925-30), who wore the colors for their first three seasons, at a time when the Bruins wore brown.

* Often when a genre becomes a trend, many originators from the trend distance themselves from the trendy genre name. Music/{{Motorhead}} and Music/SuziQuattro both made "Rock & Roll", not HeavyMetal or GlamRock, respectively. Music/SistersOfMercy are post-punk, not Gothic. Music/{{NWA}} make Reality Rap, not GangstaRap. And Music/MyChemicalRomance isn't Emo, they're PunkRock.

* ''Series/TheWhiteLotus'''s Lucia is a prostitute. When Bert (who knows that his son had already booked her for a couple of nights and is trolling said son) asks what she does for a living, she diplomatically says she works in hospitality.

* ComicBook/LukeCage has been known to defend the tiara he wore back in the 70s by saying it's a ''headband''.

* From ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'', Spoiler's costume is not purple, it's ''eggplant''. "Purple would've looked stupid"
* From ''ComicBook/{{Deadpool}}'':

* [[https://superdickery.com/real-men-wear-pink This example]] on superdickery.com shows how Robin doesn't even want to think about Batman wearing pink. (Be careful going to Superdickery: the site has a lot of viruses.)
* In an ''ComicBook/XMen'' comic Jean Grey asks ComicBook/JubileeMarvelComics if she still has nightmares. Jubilee responds that nightmares are for babies; she has "traumatic evening episodes".
* ''ComicBook/TheLonelinessOfTheLongDistanceCartoonist'':
** Adrian considers himself a cartoonist, but when he's invited to a literature festival, the obviously embarrassed moderator uses the term "graphic author" to talk about him.
** The term "graphic novel" is frequently brought up as a mature alternative to "comics" or "cartoons", which people still think are for kids.

ActionFigureJustification is related, for when toys are insistently referred to as action figures rather than dolls (despite the actual difference being the two being rather superficial and along gender lines). For instances where an evildoer insists on a more 'civil' description of his rank villainy, see BlackmailIsSuchAnUglyWord. Can overlap with TechnicalEuphemism if they use technical words.

* In ''ComicStrip/TheBoondocks'' A strip has Granddad defending his "Man-Bag" as being manly in a strip introducing the UnusualEuphemism "[[Film/BrokebackMountain Brokeback]]", for something of dubious masculinity.

* Zig-zagged in [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/08/27 this strip of]] ''Webcomic/PennyArcade''. Gabe takes offence to his belt-mounted carrying bag being called a fanny pack and insists that, because of how he's wearing it, it's more of a "holster" ("And as I think we both know, holsters are ''awesome''.")... but then calls the OTHER, identical bag he's wearing a fanny pack.

* In ''Film/TheHangover'', Alan refers to his man purse as a satchel. ("Franchise/IndianaJones has one!")
** Later, [[spoiler: it turns out that Alan and Mr. Chow both own the same satchel, except Chow insists that his is NOT a satchel, but indeed a purse]].

* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'': It's averted with Miles Edgeworth, who fully admits that the show ''Steel Samurai'' (which he secretly fanboys) is a kid's show--but then goes on to give a long caveat that the show is accessible to people of all ages and is very mature.

* Zig-zagged in [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/08/27 this strip of]] ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' where Gabe takes offence to his belt-mounted carrying bag being called a fanny pack, but then calling the second bag he's wearing a fanny pack.

* There's this exchange from ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'':

** Greg Heffley, the main character of the series, insists that what he's writing is not a diary, it's a journal.

* In ''Theatre/AVeryPotterSeniorYear'', Tom Riddle refers to his diary as a "journal", because "diaries are for girls".

* WesternAnimation/{{Doug}} keeps a ''journal''. [[BerserkButton Not a diary.]] Which is funny, because [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness one early episode]] began with him writing "Dear Diary."

* Subverted in ''Series/{{Community}}'', when Dean Pelton's assistant prefers not to use the term "secretary" because it's degrading to women; instead, she "helps the Dean do office-y things."

* In ''Series/{{Friends}}'', Ross refers to his shirt as being "sort of a faded salmon color", when it's actually pink.
** ''Friends'' also had an episode where Joey, based on fashion advice from Rachel started carrying a "unisex bag". Everyone else called it a purse.

** Monica, in flashbacks, always refers to sex/virginity as her "flower."
*** Taken from real life, where "deflowered" was such a widespread euphemism for "non-virgin" woman, that the term even appeared in formal Anatomy books (even late 1990's editions).

--> '''Luke:''' Kirk! What's with the -

* In ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'', Dewey carries a handbag that he insists is a bookbag. When a group of kids make fun of him for it, he hits them with it. This is quite effective [[SockItToThem as he had filled it with bricks.]]

* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGate 2'' the Player is lucky enough to meet up with Drizz't (again), Wulfgar and their heroic friends. When you encounter them, they are searching the undergrowth for a misplaced magical hammer that is absolutely NOT 'pink' - it's 'light red'!

* In [[http://www.wowhead.com/quest=24705 this]] [=WoW=] quest, the robed [[{{Bishonen}} blood elf]] who's been [[DudeLooksLikeALady mistaken]] for a DistressedDamsel by [[CloudCuckoolander the questgiver]] gets so flustered that even ''he'' refers to his stranded luggage as a "purse." (It's actually a [[InsistentTerminology crate]].)

* Much of the plot of ''Manga/MyLesbianExperienceWithLoneliness'' revolves around the author's first time visiting a brothel, though in it's early web-publication, she referred to sex in very clinical words. Comments on this were so widespread that she not only changed this, but acknowledged the terminology switch in the print version.

* In an ''Comicbook/XMen'' comic Jean Grey asks ComicBook/JubileeMarvelComics if she still has nightmares. Jubilee responds that nightmares are for babies; she has "traumatic evening episodes".

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', Star-Lord insists to Rocket that his bag isn't a purse, it's a knapsack.

* In "Rockin' Rocko" from ''Series/BearInTheBigBlueHouse'', Ojo, Treelo, Pip & Pop, and Tutter declare their intention to play "The Further Adventures of Snowbear, Rockboy, Clammy and Mr. Cheese. Rocky asks what what those are, if they're dolls or something. Ojo replies that Snowbear is a stuffed animal, Pip says that the rest of them prefer the term "action figures."

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* From Ze Frank's [[WebVideo/TrueFacts True Facts]] video "Snake and Lizard Tongues", regarding scientist Dr. Kurt Schwenk:

* In ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'', Donut spends most of the first season wearing a suit of pink armor, which he insists is "light-ish red".
** "Guess what? They already have a color for lightish-red. You know what it's called? Pink!"

* In the Catholic Church, there are two particular Sundays [[note]]the fourth Sunday of Lent and the third Sunday of Advent[[/note]] where the prescribed liturgical dress is of a pinkish color. Priests have been known to go to great (and humorous) lengths in their homilies on those days to impress upon the faithful that the color they're wearing is ''rose'' and '''not''' pink.

* In the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''-based [[http://www.machinima.com/ machinima]] series ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', Donut spends most of the first season wearing a suit of pink armor, which he insists is "light-ish red".

--> '''Chris:''' He can't. He was shot in the ass.