Terminological inexactitude Terminological inexactitude Terminological inexactitude is a phrase introduced in 1906 by British politician Winston Churchill. Today, it is used as a euphemism or circumlocution meaning a lie or untruth. Churchill first used the phrase following the 1906 election. Speaking in the House of Commons on 22 February 1906 as Under-Secretary of the Colonial Office, he had occasion to repeat what he had said during the campaign. When asked that day whether the Government was condoning slavery of Chinese labourers in the Transvaal, Churchill replied: It has been used as a euphemism for a lie in the House of Commons, as
Euphemism literally by young children who are acquiring language, and by older people who are learning a foreign language; an example is the "pregnant fireman" type of children's solecism. Doublespeak is a term sometimes used for deliberate euphemistic misuse of words to distort or reverse their meaning, as in a "Ministry of Peace" which wages war, and a "Ministry of Love" which imprisons and tortures. It is a portmanteau of the terms "Newspeak" and "doublethink", which originate from George Orwell's novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four". The word "euphemism" itself can be used as a euphemism. In the animated TV special "Halloween Is Grinch