Friday, January 7, 2011

Bad Words

Some words--like those topping Lake Superior State University "36th Annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness"--are annoying. Others are just plain ugly. At Ragan, Roula Amire takes stock of the terms that make our skin crawl, and finds that the vast majority of the words are "associated with something unpleasant."

It's true. Save for petunia, most of words are ugly in more than just their aesthetics--even if pseriosis, dysplasia, eczema, and blastoma sounded downright angelic, most of us would just as soon never hear them directed our way. Check out Ragan's full list for inspiration, and let us know: which words make your stomach churn? Any with "good" meanings that just happen to sound revolting?

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