History UnusualEuphemism / Literature

* In Creator/LFrankBaum's ''Literature/OzmaOfOz'', the Nome King exclaims "Rocketty-ricketts!". When further vexed, "[[http://www.classicreader.com/book/118/17/ he screamed in a fury, 'Hippikaloric!' which must be a dreadful word because we don't know what it means.]]"

* In Creator/LFrankBaum's [[Literature/LandOfOz Oz book]] ''Ozma of Oz'', the Nome King exclaims "Rocketty-ricketts!". When further vexed, "[[http://www.classicreader.com/book/118/17/ he screamed in a fury, 'Hippikaloric!' which must be a dreadful word because we don't know what it means.]]"

** ''Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix'' gives us "galloping gargoyles!"

* A clever use of one of these turns up in ''[[Literature/AuntDimity Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch]]''. As part of an early skirmish against Mae Bowen's hippie fans, Peggy Taxman accuses one Bowenist of this in ''Aunt Dimity and the Village Witch''. From her outraged response, he said something about her "petals", and she took it to mean her labia. Definitely PlayedForLaughs, but the laugh's on the cultist.

* In the ''Literature/DreamPark'' novels by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes, "drown" is now a swear-word in a California that has suffered through a particularly massive earthquake.

* ''The Gripping Hand'' (The sequel to ''Literature/TheMoteInGodsEye'') by Creator/LarryNiven and Jerry Pournelle uses an Unusual Euphemism as a plot point. In order to prove they haven't been replaced by master-psychologist aliens (who haven't been in contact with humans in years) some characters use the recently invented curse "rape my lizard!", with the justification that profanity-evolution is essentially random, and won't be predicted by the aliens.

* Creator/OrsonScottCard's novella "Dogwalker" (collected in ''Literature/MapsInAMirror'') is full of cyberpunk-style slang, and has a character use the word "pope" to mean "penis." Later a character is described as being "smart enough to put his hands in his pockets without seeking an audience with the pope."

** In Britain at any rate, "bishop" can be used as a euphemism for "penis" ("bashing the bishop" being one slang term for jerking off) since the bishop in a chess set looks vaguely like the organ in question. There is also at least one example of "cardinal" being used (in [[DepravedBisexual Aleister Crowley's]] ''Not the Life of Roger Bloxam''). Presumably Orson just took the idea to its logical conclusion...

** In Britain at any rate, "bishop" can be used as a euphemism for "penis" ("bashing the bishop" being one slang term for jerking off) since the bishop in a chess set looks vaguely like the organ in question. There is also at least one example of "cardinal" being used (in [[DepravedBisexual Aleister Crowley's]] ''Not the Life of Roger Bloxam.'') Presumably Orson just took the idea to its logical conclusion...

** In [[Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy the original radio play]] and the American version of ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'', the word "Belgium" is recognized everywhere in the Universe except on a certain InsignificantLittleBluePlanet as such a rude word that it's only used in serious screenplays (one character has an award for Most Gratuitous Use of "Belgium" in a Serious Screenplay). The UK version of the book simply used "Fuck", but the "Belgium" joke seems to be more popular with many readers. For the same reason, the American edition of ''Life, the Universe, and Everything'' borrowed "swut" from the radio series, and changed an insult for Arthur Dent from "arsehole" to "kneebiter" (again, some readers prefer the latter).

* In ''Literature/HulloRussiaGoodbyeEngland'', Flight-Lieutenant Silk has an affair with a former model who has dropped out of society to live a poor but content life in the country. The relationship occupies a sort of halfway house between a FriendsWithBenefits situation and outright prostitution. There is something genuine between them. But Silk uses the cover story of "taking cello lessons" to justify his visits to her cottage and the unspoken agreement is that the cello lessons cost him £5 a session. the fact the cello never leaves its case is immaterial. [[note]]Until Mrs silk challenges him to play a middle-C at the very least. [[/note]]

** The Ginkgo tree is used as a synonym for homosexuality, due to the need to plant male and female trees far apart (the fruit are described by Wiki/TheOtherWiki to smell "like rancid butter or vomit").

* The dialog in the ''Literature/CodexAlera'' series involves a lot of creative variations on "crows" and "furies." Among other things, this has led to one character earning the FanNickname "the Crowbegotten Franchise/{{Batman}}."

*** TruthInTelevision: In days when self-employed women were rare, ladies of the night faced with reporting their income for taxes would claim that they were seamstresses, a self-employed profession that ''was'' acceptable for a woman.

** ''Literature/InterestingTimes'' uses "complicated pictogram", often with a minimally-provocative description following. (The equivalent of an exclamation point is a urinating dog. This has been used up to four times in a row.)

The cats really don't seem to like foxes: "foxhearted" is apparently a heavy insult (based on the reactions when it's used), which makes the cat actually named Foxheart have an UnfortunateName.