Intended as a survey of the use of "weasel words" (a term coined by Theodore Roosevelt to mean an equivocal word intended to deprive a statement of its force), this book discusses these words both as a part of the historical process of language change and as a misleading and confusing element in current media. Humorous in tone, the book presents numerous examples of weasel word techniques taken from radio, television, citizen band language, media advertising, other advertising techniques and practices, Hollywood, the performing arts, sports, magazines, and books, as well as from the jargon used in discussing the new sex morality, pornography, women's liberation, the "generation gap," science, and education. (MAI)