Silent Majority - Euphemism For The Dead

Euphemism For The Dead

The phrase had been in use for much of the 19th century to refer to the dead—the number of living people is less than the number who have died, so the dead are the majority in that sense. Phrases such as "gone to a better world", "gone before", and "joined the silent majority" served as euphemisms for "he died". In 1902, Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan employed this sense of the phrase, saying in a speech that "great captains on both sides of our Civil War have long ago passed over to the silent majority, leaving the memory of their splendid courage."