dysphemism

When I was in school, “queer” was one of those fraught dysphemisms.

We also invited the opposite — dysphemisms, terms that cast concepts in a worse light:

Conversely, you can also suggest dysphemisms: terms that put the term in a worse light, such as “unwanted dreck” rather than “special value.”

It can result, he said, in a collision of euphemisms and their linguistic opposites, dysphemisms.