Since I've been active in this thread, I'll leave it to the discretion of other staff to what degree we should allow the bypassing. It is a valid topic of discussion, and bypassing might be hard to avoid.
I've said "scared spitless" myself. Then again, some people even consider "spit" a crude word. In some societies, any reference at all to a biological function is considered bad manners. Remember Corabeth's line on the "The Waltons?" One of the kids had made reference to being sweaty from working hard, and she bristled. "Horses sweat, dear. People perspire." Some of the blunt words for biological functions came through the Germanic or Anglo-Saxon, while the more "polite" words for the same thing came through Latin. I've often wondered why one language origin was "proper" while the other was "crude."
And then gender plays a role too. I once used "whiz" in reference to what my dog was about to do on the living room floor, but I got her outside in time. A young neighbor who was visiting told me, "Don't say whiz. That's a boy's word. Say tinkle." Um..... OK.
The euphemism treadmill is a good point. I didn't know it was also called pejoration. I cited the example with mental disability recently in another thread.
