The 10 most scandalous euphemisms

1. "Hiking the Appalachian Trail" When South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford disappeared for six days in 2009, his aides told reporters he had gone for a walking holiday along the US's most celebrated hiking route. In fact, it soon transpired Sanford had been with his Argentine mistress in Buenos Aires. The phrase quickly ignited the imaginations of the press corps. "I think we should start using 'hiking the Appalachian trail' for discussions of future political scandale, don't you?", suggested commentator Andrew Sullivan. The subsequent popularity of the phrase did not prevent Sanford winning election to the House of Representatives, where he is due to be sworn in.

2. "Discussing Uganda" In 1973, the satirical magazine Private Eye reported that journalist Mary Kenny had been disturbed in the arms of a former cabinet minister of President Obote of Uganda during a party. Variations of "Ugandan discussions" or "discussing Uganda" - the term is believed to have been coined by the poet James Fenton - were subsequently used by the Eye to describe any illicit encounter, and the phrase soon became part of common usage.

3. "Didn't inhale" The political career of Bill Clinton has been far from unencumbered by scandal - not least when he attempted to redefine "sexual relations". But perhaps his greatest linguistic legacy came during his campaign for the presidency when he admitted he had smoked marijuana but "didn't inhale". Almost immediately, the verb "to inhale" was deployed on campuses everywhere in place of "to get high". Even Clinton's successor-but-one got in on the act. "The point was to inhale," Barack Obama told reporters in 2008, admitting his own youthful drug use. "That was the point."

4. "Tired and emotional" In 1957 The Spectator lost a libel trial brought by three Labour politicians whom it accused of having been drunk. Intoxication being difficult to prove retrospectively in court without a blood sample, British journalists cast around for an alternative phrase. The result, at first, tended to be associated with Labour's deputy leader George Brown. Some sources suggest the phrase was first coined by Brown's agent, Edward Eldred, when making excuses for his erratic boss. But it was popularised when Brown made a televised tribute after President John F Kennedy's assassination while visibly inebriated. A press release the following day described his condition as "tired and emotional" - a form of words adopted by Private Eye and others in their wake.

5. "Final user" The carnivalesque private life of Silvio Berlusconi introduced a bemused world to the notion of "bunga bunga". An escort named Patrizia D'Addario, who said she slept with the former Italian prime minister at a party, extended his linguistic legacy. The politician's lawyer Niccolo Ghedini denied the claims - and said because D'Addario said Berlusconi had not personally hired or paid her he would have been the "utilizzatore finale" or "final user" of her services, and thus was not criminally liable. Despite Ghedini's protestations of his client's innocence, the phrase has become a euphemism for men who use prostitutes.

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