George Orwell wrote that "political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging, and sheer cloudy vagueness." 

For the "1984" author, euphemism was a method by which powerful people cloaked violent acts. The more vaguely you described something violent, the less awful the violence sounds.

That trend has carried over to corporate America and Silicon Valley, where CEOs and HR departments invent all sorts of creative language to cloak the fact that people are getting fired.

One example: When the CEO of Fab announced it would fire 100 people in its Berlin office last year, he called the layoffs an "opportunity to start your new job search immediately" in an internal memo.

As the New York Times has reported, there are at least 48 examples of euphemisms for getting fired. 

Here's the list:

  1. Asked to Resign
  2. Axed
  3. Canned
  4. Career Assessment and Re-employment
  5. Career Transition
  6. Chemistry Change
  7. Coerced Transition
  8. Decruited
  9. Degrowing
  10. Dehiring
  11. Deployment
  12. Deselected
  13. Destaffing
  14. Discharged
  15. Dismissal
  16. Displacement
  17. Downsizing
  18. Excessed
  19. Executive Culling
  20. Force Reduction
  21. Fumigation
  22. Indefinite Idling
  23. Involuntary Separation
  24. Job Separation
  25. Let Go
  26. Negotiated Departure
  27. Outplacement
  28. Personnel Surplus Reduction
  29. Position Elimination
  30. Premature Retirement
  31. Redeployment
  32. Redirected
  33. Redundancy elimination
  34. Release
  35. Reorganization
  36. Replaced
  37. Requested Departure
  38. RIF — Reduction in Force: "I was Riffed"
  39. Right-sizing
  40. Sacked
  41. Selected Out
  42. Selectively Separated
  43. Skill Mix Adjustment
  44. Termination
  45. Transitioned
  46. Vocational Relocation
  47. Workforce Adjustment
  48. Workforce Imbalance Correction

Got any more? Tell us in the comments.