Moist. Mucus. Phlegm. Slurp.
Did you just unintentionally squirm as you read those words?
The phenomenon of word aversion – seemingly normal, inoffensive words that just seem to rile people up- has received quite some attention in the past few years. It is just an irrational feeling of hate or distaste for a word not because of its etymology, nor because of any grammatical or logical errors or the redundancy of a word. It is simply an aversion to a word that feels unpleasant or even disgusting.
Moist, meaning slightly wet, can be used to describe a delicious cake, or ,even a moist towelette to help freshen yourself. Why then, does it still make us uneasy? Probably because it can also be used to describe a moist cyst. Let’s look into the origin of the word. The word moist in late Middle English came from the Old French word moiste, which in turn owes its origin to the Latin word mucidus which means mouldy. All these words are pretty unpleasant. We just used the word unpleasant to describe something that makes us feel uneasy and queasy, yet the word unpleasant in itself is a pretty pleasant word.
Why is it that certain words affect us in a way that they do? Some claim that it may be dependant on social media coverage. Many comedians have put the word moist under scrutiny, therefore etching in people’s minds, the gross quality of the word. The reaction to these words may also arise from what they embody. For example, a lot of people have claimed that the word rat makes them uneasy, since it immediately brings the image of a dirty and disgusting animal to some. Each person perceives every word differently. What is normal to someone may make another cringe. Our own names may in fact elucidate a response similar to that of the word moist from someone. Repetition of certain words also leads to the same reaction. Over time, the word loses its meaning and the very act of pronouncing it makes one uneasy. As many people have said, English is a wonderfully weird language, so here’s something for you to ponder:
“I cleaned up my moist slacks to get rid of the icky, black, mucus-like phlegm on it, but instead of cleaning, I ended up smearing the mucus and squirting a ton of viscous soap on it.”
-Shreyaa R
I’ve learned some new things by your weblog. One other thing I would really like to say is that newer pc operating systems have a tendency to allow more memory for use, but they in addition demand more memory simply to run. If a person’s computer can’t handle a lot more memory as well as the newest application requires that memory space increase, it can be the time to buy a new Computer system. Thanks