Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word euphemism originates from the ancient Greek concept of eupheme, which was a female spirit of praise and positive speech. It literally translates to speaking well or keeping a holy silence by avoiding the direct utterance of taboo subjects.
University of Oregon linguist Sharon Henderson Taylor identified the euphemism cycle in 1974 as a phenomenon where a term loses its deflective force and becomes synonymous with the very thing it sought to hide. This cycle continues to churn through the medical industry and public consciousness as seen in the Social Security Administration replacing mental retardation with intellectual disability in August 2013.
As early as 1939, Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich used the term special treatment to mean the summary execution of persons viewed as disciplinary problems. Heinrich Himmler later replaced this phrase with a new euphemism in which Jews would be guided to their deaths through slave-labor and extermination camps after having been evacuated to their doom.
During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the invasion a special military operation. This phrase was designed to downplay the scale and nature of the conflict while creating a gap between the reality of events and public perception.
Common methods include periphrasis or circumlocution where speakers speak around a given word, the use of foreign words like the French word encient for pregnant, and the use of slang or metaphors. Minced oaths or phonetic euphemisms also alter the pronunciation or spelling of taboo words to form new terms.
The use of euphemisms online is known as algospeak when used to evade automated online moderation techniques used on Meta and TikTok's platforms. Algosppech has been used in debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict where users modify their language to avoid censorship.