why do we call someone who died our late father/ mother and not our deceased father/mother in conversation?

Answer 1

it stems from military roll calls like a school register and those who did not return from battle were called late but we knew they had died.

Answer 2

what most people have said on here is accurate:
in short its a euphemism which serves to make it less severe than deceased. the word deceased, in a very similar way, used to replace "dead". other words we use to make it sound less harsh (because people generally steer clear of "hard" words such "i'm broke" they'd rather say "i'm financially embarrassed" or "i'll be able to afford it later" rather than admit, "i've got no money". so the word "late" is better than deceased and even deceased is better than "dead". Generally you use the word "dead" when its not a family member, and thus have no direct relation to the source of the pain around the event. for instance, we will say "lady diana has died" in the news, but you'd hardly call up a sister or brother and say one of your parents "is dead". it comes across as cold and uncaring...its got something to do with manipulating words so as to not feel the brunt of cold reality. its like saying also, someone is "chubby" instead of "fat" or someone is "average looking" instead of "not attractive". oh well, the list goes on and on...

Answer 3

Late is a normal every day word that people are not afraid to say.. It is not associated with the morbid and obscure and does not remind us of our own pending mortality.
However, saying deceased is actually acknowledging that there is death in the world and all the nasty emotions that are involved with that acknowledgement. Deceased is a word that someone whispers to another person in an empty room, for fear of the no one that is around them, may over hear it.
Late= "oh he is no longer around"
Deceased = "he is dead in a casket" (morbid huh) That makes me whisper it in an empty room.

(no source. Just my opinion)

Answer 4

The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest example of "late" meaning recently deceased is dated 1490. "Late" as an adjective meaning "recent but not continuing to the present" is similar, but the OED's first citation for it is from approx. 1548, so this sense may not have given rise to the "recently deceased" one. The OED says this latter sense of "late" apparently developed from an adverbial use, defined as "Not long since (but not now); recently (but no longer)." Its first quotation for "late" as an adverb in this sense is "John the monke late cardynal of Rome" (1474).

"The Hendersons will all be there, late of Pablo Fanques' fair, what a scene!" (Beatles)

Answer 5

You can talk about "the deceased" and it's in an impersonal way, so it seems less appropriate to attach it to someone you know. It also is a softer option when referring to death, even obliquely.

Answer 6

I don't think I've ever referred to anyone as the "late". But normally it's used just because it's considered more polite. It's one of those social conventions about not mentioning death

Answer 7

''I have of late....lost all my mirth''Hamlet

LATE
meaning no longer with us.

behind us even.
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19990616
this answers your exact question fully

Answer 8

its morrally correct