The answer to both these questions can be summed up in one rather euphemistic word: "Delivery".
Note how well the non-U words conform to Fowler's definition of genteelism: the choice of the fancier, rarer, or more euphemistic word.
I noticed, in the obituaries for Philip Seymour Hoffman, how many writers felt obliged to say that he was fat (or euphemistic words to that effect) and exclaimed that, despite this, he was a star.
When in a foul mood, Wood occasionally let a ball drift near a batter's head at 96 or 97 m.p.h., a gesture that, in the euphemistic words of Cubs catcher Michael Barrett, made you feel "uncomfortable".
For similar reasons, many object to replacing the brutal, ugly word "nigger", with all of the miserable history it carries, with the bland and euphemistic "N-word".
unacceptable: Such a feeble, euphemistic little word, but so often trotted out.
And secretly, I can't deny feeling a bit relieved -- his euphemistic choice of words managed to soothe me.
Those who suspected his choice of words was euphemistic were proved right when the German newspaper Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung published a different account of the dinner, leaked to them from Juncker's circle.
It recently dawned on me, with all the force of an Algerian headbutt, that I am not a gifted soccer player — or better say, that I am a gifted soccer player, only in the euphemistic, American sense of the word.
By Giles Harvey August 11, 2011 It recently dawned on me, with all the force of an Algerian headbutt, that I am not a gifted soccer player — or better say, that I am a gifted soccer player, only in the euphemistic, American sense of the word.
