| 词组 | mortician |
| 释义 | mortician This word is an Americanism that was coined as a synonym for undertaker in the 1890s. Mencken 1936 notes that it first occurred in a publication titled Embalmers' Monthly in 1895 (we first heard of it in 1897, in a letter from the publisher of the Western Undertaker). Its euphemistic qualities have naturally attracted some derision over the years, but few people now are conscious of it as a euphemism, and its use in American English is common and unremarkable: • ... asked by the hospital which mortician you wish to have called —Harper's Weekly, 9 Feb. 1976 • ... increased cancers among such occupationally exposed groups as beauticians and morticians —Ben A. Franklin, N.Y. Times, 20 Mar. 1984 Undertakers themselves, interestingly enough, apparently prefer the term funeral director, which is actually an even older euphemism, first recorded in 1886. |
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