Friday, November 19, 2010

Just saying it makes me sick.

I hadn't really thought much about word aversion, even after reading the article I mentioned before. I know other people who hate the word "moist" but it has never bothered me; in point of fact, I rather like it. It makes me think of either chocolate cake or moist towelettes, both of which are amazing things in their own ways. (And after you've eaten particularly moist chocolate cake you could probably use a moist towelette to tidy up.)

There aren't that many words that really bug me like that (leaving aside words that are by definition offensive or used specifically to offend, but that's different than regular word aversion). I don't generally have the kind of visceral response to a word like people do to moist, so I wasn't going to really do a separate word aversion post.

But then Lost in Translation regarding her extreme aversion to the word "lecithin" and it gave me one of those rare moments of personal insight. (Well, two actually; the first one being that while I like the word "adjectival," I don't like using the word "nominal" to denote nouns. Probably because it sounds like I'm minimizing their importance. But that's not the important moment of personal insight here.)

I don't hate "lecithin." But I hate the word for what it is.

I do have a word aversion. An extreme aversion to the word—I shudder to type it . . .

. . . "emulsifier."

*ewewewewew*

Just saying it, just thinking it—nay, just typing it—gives me a serious case of the jibblies, the same way you get when you see a snake or a really gross spider or a really soggy something-that-shouldn't-be-soggy, like cake. It just sounds WRONG. And gross. And—

Okay, that's it, I need to go take a shower to get rid of the grossness.

Are there any words that you absolutely loathe? Leave 'em in the comments so we can all be grossed out together!



Day 19! Wahoo! We're nearly two-thirds of the way there!

3 comments:

Lost in Translation said...

I hadn't thought of "nominal" as downplaying the significance of nouns, as that's simply what you call it in linguistic terms. (If you doubt me, ask Kat!)

Emulsifier doesn't gross me out, but since that's what "lecithin" is, I think we're in the same boat. Ew ew ew.

elliespen said...

Oh, no, I'm perfectly well aware that it's a linguistic term. My brain justs insists on interpreting it in the sense of being small or token. Just one of those things. I know you didn't mean it as any kind of slight. ;)

Katie E. said...

There's a double meaning in that.