Today’s post is inspired by one of Jeff’s comments yesterday. He asked if I was given any ointment and I immediately cringed.
OINTMENT
That’s one of those words. Those gross words. Those gross words you say and your mouth immediately feels dirty.
OINTMENT ranks right up there alongside ‘MOIST’. What a horrible word.
It’s pretty bad, but even worse? The word ‘cake’. Not just saying the word cake. Saying the word cake while eating cake. And that SOUND the word makes when it gets all caught in your cake filled throat. CAAAAAAKKKKKKEE.
So disgusting.
On the flip side, some fun words to say ‘onomatopoeia’ or (in Spanish) ‘trabajabamos’.
Tell me you don’t smile after saying those.
What do you think are the best/worst words to say?
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
Right there with you on the “ointment” thing. I’m a big fan of “plethora.”
i have a million favorite words, a few are: mollify, persnickity, epiphany, hullabaloo, sycophant and melange. as for words i hate? pubescent, behemoth, aghast, the p word (but not the c word)
my best friend in high school would literally crawl out of her skin if you so much as WHISPERED the word “flesh”.
Linguists voted “cellar” as one of the most beautiful words in the English language to pronounce. “Cellar door” was the top phrase.
Trust me, I know these things.
Also, in stage productions, in order to create the sound of an large unruly mob offstage castmembers repeat the phrase “Rhubarb garbage, rhubarb garbage.” The cadence and repetition make it sound like many more people are chanting than are actually present.
It’s like using coconuts to mimic galloping.
-t
oh, right, words I like:
“obsfucate,” “sleuth,” “jalopy,” “pickering,” “inherent,” and “unilateralivity.”
Salve. Grosses me out everytime. I saw a jar of Pregnant Belly Salve in my brother’s bathroom and I almost ralphed.
ah, how fun! being a foreigner, pronouncing foreign words is even more fun [or not]… i hate words with too many “th’s” [because i have to concentrate too much pronouncing them]… like “threemillionthreehundredthirtythreethousandthreehundredandthirtythree” ;)
i do like the words “inexplicably”, “hedgehog” and “peruse”.
this is so random :)
Oooh – me next, me next!
I hate: moist, excrescence, dilation, panties, ingratiating.
I love: sycamore, onomatopoeia (good call, Jenny), nubile, monkeys, pumpkin, lovely.
Plethora. (Cause if you say you have a plethora, then you must have a plethora.)
Inconceivable. (Which I’m not too sure it means what I think it means.)
I find llama very fun to say. I also like -ish. It is very common in my vocabulary but I suppose it isn’t a real word per say.
I don’t like the word twat… I CRINGE every time I hear it! It’s just vile and lewd.
“Surreptitious” might be my favorite word to say. As for gross words… the word “scrotum” totally sicks me out.
I know a few people that have problems with “panties.” I actually quite like it.
Best would be Adroit, Quagmire & kooky.
Worst: Culpable, Congruous, (any other bullshit corporate word from a silly acronyms) and lastly vein for some reason that word makes my wrists itch.
belly.
ubiquitous
feet
In the words of Lord Melchitt…
“Crevice. Now there’s a truly disgusting word”
I LOVE (in Spanish) bigote. Means moustache.
HATE panties too. Just ewww…
I love the words Meatball and Soup.
I hate the words moist and panties.
And for my extra credit assignment I hate the phrase “making love”…blech.
Kate – I COMPLETELY agree with you on the phrase “making love” it’s gross and it make me think of old people screwing in a boring motionless manner.
I would much rather hear in an intimate moment “I wanna do the wild monkey sex dance with you” vs. “I want to make love to you”.
You make sandwiches… not love.
Moist. Ew! Just typing it makes me squirm.
As for good words, I like saying RF Modulator, although the fact that I own one means that I have a very old and crappy television.
strangely enough, i just had a conversation about the grossness of “moist” this weekend.
and “moist towelette” should totally not be a thing.
I also hate panties. but I hate blouse more.
and mance, nice call with surreptitious. I completely overuse it just because it’s so beautiful.
ooh oooh!
and one i love:
draconian.
yum.
I dislike tummy, squat and excrement.
I love tranquility, luminous and since someone else mentioned a Spanish word, I also love “la sospecha,” which translates to “the suspicion.” I used to LOVE the way my Spanish professor said it, in particular. Not anything else he said, mind you… but that was pretty cool sounding.
I swear I could have written this post! I HATE both of those words.
I have a girlfriend who can’t stand the word ‘finger’. he!
I love the word voracious and I also like omnipotent, because it sounds like something its not. ;-)
funny, i thought jaynie would have a been a bit more…enthusiastic about this exercise. perhaps she is having an off day?
and since she didn’t mention it, i must say that one of her previous (and possible current) favorite words is one i also greatly enjoy: “sherbert.”
my favorite word to say (and favorite all around word, if you must know) is “revelation.” my least favorite word in the entire known universe is “chuck.” followed closely by “chunk,” for obvious reasons.
oh, and tom, give it up – you totally got the cellar door thing from donnie darko. repent, and be saved :)
I always enjoy spelling “indivisibility” out loud … or trying to type it.
Do you know what a plethora is?
I’m voting NO on : moist, panties, and puss.
I vote YES on : tasty, dynamite, and unflappable.
i can never think of words i hate when i try to think of them. they just have to be said and then i slap the person who said it.
oh but i hate the word puss like someone said. or pus. both suck.
i dont dislike words so much for their meaning as the way i have to say them.
in spanish i love saying “escuchen”. which means listen up. but it sounds like scooch over so i use it everytime someones in my way. i also like raunchy, alotta, and bothersome. and the word/sound i made up which is schlaka, which means whatever i want it to mean.
*smirk* I cringe when I read/hear that…which is why I had to post it ;)
kate.d, know what? I typed my comment, and then went to pee (obviously), and while I’m washing my hands I said out loud “SHERBERT! I FORGOT SHERBERT!”
I thank you.
also, that is scary.
kate d. I’ve never seen Donnie Darko.
I forgot “queue.” Great word.
tom, get outta town. i figured that “cellar door” thing only picked up steam (and was at all known) because of that movie.
in the movie, i think the claim is that some famous writer said “cellar door” was the most beautiful phrase in the english language. john cheever? john irving? john someone?
i dunno. but i think the true origins of who gave props to “cellar door” is reaching urban legend proportions! if it was a vote, do you know anything about whether it’s documented somewhere?
now i’m so curious…
J.R.R Tolkien said the “cellar door” word is one of the most beautiful phrases.
http://arwen-undomiel.com/tolkien/quotes.html
There is another site that lists a bunch of words that sound especially pretty/ugly, but I cannot seem to find it right now. I remember chalice as being number one prettiest; the ugliest was jukebox…jazz was there too.
A friend of mine who was learning English some years ago said her favorite English word was “thingy”, but I think her reasoning was along the lines of its overall ability to describe about anything without knowing the correct term. Still, it is a nice word.
gross words: coagulate, curdled, congealed, and milk
favorite words: flippant, boyancy, dandelioins
i definitely get the moist thing. although for me, crusty is much much worse. a good word is pretty, i also really like saying luminous.
Coagulate is a pretty disgusting word. i hadn’t thought of it until i saw it. It does make me feel a bit queasy though. I also hate the word cauterize. I don’t know if it’s just the word or knowing what it means that grosses me out more.
For good words, since we’ve been listing some spanish..I’ve always loved the phrase “por ejemplo” which means “for example”. It just rolls nicely off the tounge.
I really like the word moist…. I think it has a lot of character
I also like the words unique, wristwatch, meniscus, twirl, bubbly, and slurp.
Some words I don’t like are grind, crinkle no and failure (some for the way they sound and some for there meaning)
The phrases (well tongue twisters) that are neat as well are:
toy boat
and
irish wristwatch
they are just really fun to say :-)
oh I forgot to mention my spanish favorite… (since that seemed to be a theme)
sacapuntas!!!
haha it means pencil sharpener
I take french so, I like to say “ananas” which means pineapple, and “pomme de terre” which means potato, but literally translates to apple of the earth.
Words I don’t like are: certificate, aluminum, stockings, and bummer.
My friend and I have been texting gross words back and forth all day [bringing back memories of when we used to work together and had ACTUAL hours-long conversations about gross words], and here are some that make us both a little nauseous: Balm/balmy, coagulate, congeal, mucus, menses, menstruate, damp, seepage, pussing, scrotum, uvula, vulva, skin tags, dissolve, creamy, filmy… I could continue but I am so grossed out right now. Haha.
Some of my faves are: colloquial, cacophony, luminous, vibrant, sassafras, monsoon, extraordinary, akimbo, gobsmacked, laguna, and hullabaloo. There are more, I just can’t think of them at the moment. :]
As for Spanish words: emboscada! I think it means either escape or ambush, I forget, but my sister and I say it all the time!
Coffee cake is pretty horrible – it sounds like someone coughing and then wretching.
Bulge is also horrible, as is oleaginous.
I like the words jumble and tumble, and tatterdemalion.
i’m looking for ideas for a name for a dog but this is such a cool topic so i want to share one of the coolest cutest funniest words i ever heard – miyome – which means ‘monkey’ in hungarian. (no clue how to spell it but that’s what it sounded like)
favorite – SQUEEGIE! piggy, Monkey, Ninja, Escape (but say it like in Finding Nemo. Escaappeeeeh), puppy, pleonasm, dragon, giggle
Dislike – curdle, pus, scat, convoluted, mucus, pestulance, visceral, spooge
i was having a gross word off with a friend, and came to google it.
some to share: fetus, spew, placenta, flaps
i actually was on a camp and moist panties came up so that was quite a laugh finding those words.
and a good call is for something ‘cool’ is my general ‘sick as aids.’
Chunky.
Ew, ew, ew, ew, EW.
SHLONG, ewww!
after looking at the words most people have posted, i think it’s hard for me to be objective since i know what all the words mean.
i like the russian words:
????????? (ananasnaya) (pineapple adj.)
??????? (zhuzhzhit’) (to buzz)
?????? (uyutnuyu) (cozy)