Some terms are obviously euphemisms fabricated in order to evade. When you say you “slept with” someone last night, the appropriate question in reply isn’t about how rested you feel. Others, usually business or journalistic buzzwords, are better disguised; they are partial euphemisms. When you refer to a “developing country,” it might be appropriate to ask at what pace the economy is growing, or it might be appropriate to ask whether this week the dictator is responding to hyperinflation by ordering soldiers to fire into crowds. That’s the thing about euphemisms and slippery language, they are designed to tell you with a nudge what to think in advance, so you don’t ask too many inconvenient questions.

But some euphemisms are naturally occurring. Whenever it came into existence, the term “prep school” (college preparatory school, that is) was not a euphemism. It was direct, not slippery. It was a way of referring to a school organized around preparing students for the scholarly challenges of college. But I got to thinking about it as I, along with the entire media, have become captivated by the sheer grossness of the college admissions scandal, in which Hollywood celebrities and other muckety-mucks bought kids into college for huge dollar values by bribing the gatekeepers in admissions or for athletic team scholarships.