EUHEMERISM

PRONUNCIATION: (yoo-HEE-muh-riz-uhm, -HEM-)

MEANING: noun: The idea that gods are based on historical heroes whose stories became exaggerated in retelling.

ETYMOLOGY: After Euhemerus, a fourth-century BCE Greek writer, who proposed that the gods of mythology were based on real heroes whose accounts became exaggerated with time. Earliest documented use: 1846.
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EUPHEMERISM - the idea that you should sanitize the name of anything earthy before you utter it

EDUHEMERISM - turning out scholars who are only half-educated

EUCHEMERISM - the original "Thou" of Martin Buber's I and Thou