Historical linguistics has revealed traces of taboo deformations
in many languages. Several are known to have occurred in Indo-
European languages, including the original Proto-Indo-European
words for bear (*rtkos), wolf (*wlkwos), and deer (originally,
hart; the deformation likely occurred to avoid confusion with
heart). In different Indo-European languages, each of these
words has a difficult etymology because of taboo deformations—a
euphemism was substituted for the original, which no longer
occurs in the language. An example is the Slavic root for
bear—*medu-ed-, which means "honey eater". One example in
English is "donkey" replacing the old Indo-European-derived word
"ass". The word "dandelion" (lit., tooth of lion, referring to
the shape of the leaves) is another example, being a substitute
for pissenlit, meaning "wet the bed", a possible reference to
the fact that dandelion was used as a diuretic. In some
languages of the Pacific, using the name of a deceased chief is
taboo. Amongst indigenous Australia