(ἐπονομάζειν, to speak well of), in Rhetoric, a figure in which a delicate word or expression is substituted for one that is harsh or offensive; as in the use of "departed" or "deceased" for "dead." Among the ancients the use of euphemisms was very frequent, arising from a superstitious dread of using certain words and phrases that were regarded as ominous or unlucky. Hence Horace's "male ominatis parere verbis." For the same reason the Furies were called by the Greeks Eumenides, q.d., the gracious ones.