Everyone knows this one, which is the point. “Cozy” is a euphemism that has been fully decoded by its audience; nobody reading a listing believes the apartment is cozy. They read “small” and move on. So why does the listing still say “cozy”?

Because the euphemism is no longer for the buyer. It is a ritual, a way for the agent to not be the one who said “small.” The listener translates, the speaker is spared, and both sides understand the arrangement.

Mamet would call this losing faith in words. When a word is known by everyone to mean its opposite, it has stopped being a word and become a gesture. Real-estate copy is full of them: “charming” for old, “up-and-coming” for not yet, “efficient” for very small, “full of potential” for needs work. The dialect is so complete you could write a listing that is entirely false and entirely understood.