etymology - What causes the euphemisation of medical terms?


George Carlin has a famous sketch where he laments the dehumanising of ailments by “euphemisation”, illustrated by the use of “shell shock” during World War I, followed by “battle fatigue”, then “operational exhaustion”, and finally “post-traumatic stress disorder” (“PTSD”) today. Google Ngram Viewer does indicate that “operational exhaustion” never gained traction, and that “battle fatigue” never overtook “shell shock” completely, but “post-traumatic stress disorder” has left “shell shock” far behind:


Ngrams


Other modern medical euphemisms which sprang to mind:



As a counterexample, “influenza” is a very old term term which doesn't seem to have acquired a common scientific name.


Are the forces behind the creation of such medical euphemisms known? Are they usually caused by political pressure, a wish to dissociate the professional from slang, some actual scientific reasoning, or some other force?



Answer



The move from “battle fatigue” to “post-traumatic stress disorder” is not euphemism but rather an advance in understanding of the disease process in question. (The disorder is by no means limited to combat veterans—if anything, survivors of domestic and/or sexual abuse are the largest group of sufferers—and it has less to do with fatigue than with the persistence of a psychological defense mechanism, dissociation, that was needful at the time of trauma but has outlasted that usefulness.)


Idiot, imbecile, moron, retard, etc., were indeed coined as euphemisms, and illustrate the iron law of euphemisms, that with use they lose their euphemistic quality, becoming as harsh as the words for which they were initially offered as gentler substitutes—and so they need to be replaced with new euphemisms. Thus “toilet,” originally the process of preparing for social appearance by washing, dressing, and applying cosmetics, came to be applied as a euphemism for the “jakes,” but by now is as literal as can be in denoting the porcelain article of furniture into which we void urine and feces.


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