word aversion

[aroraborealis]

Do you have any word aversions?

I have one: "pit" (but only when describing holes or hole-like areas (armpit, tree pit, etc, not, say, when describing the stones in fruit).

Comments

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

"Crotch" and "horny" come to mind.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Oh, and my former first name.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Yes. :)

[contessagrrl.livejournal.com]

You are the person I always think of when I think of aversion words, which I realize could make you feel weird (in a bad way, and I hope doesn't!) but the truth is, I find yours (the ones I know of!) charming!

[dbang.livejournal.com]

"fart". Hate it.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Oh, ugh! Yes!

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

When you encounter my kids in person, you'll probably appreciate it that my three-year-old uses "poopy noise" in place of that word. I don't remember how she/we happened to start using it, but my wife decided that she liked it a lot better than the alternative, so we decided to go with it.

[eestiplika.livejournal.com]

"Moist" and "Slacks"

I'm trying to desensitize myself to the first one, because how else do you describe the texture of a good cake in English?

[kcatalyst.livejournal.com]

I find the "moist" aversion fascinating, it seems like a huge percentage of English-speaking women have that one.

[sconstant.livejournal.com]

I was going to write in about slacks! Freaky.

[vito-excalibur.livejournal.com]

"Sac". I can't stand it!

[dbang.livejournal.com]

Yes!!

[dpolicar]

Hm.
I have trouble answering this question.

I mean, presumably you don't intend to count words that are generally understood to be epithets... I have trouble with "faggot" or "kike", for example, but I assume that doesn't count.

Moving towards the more idiosyncratic... hm. "Putative" always shocks me a little, presumably because of the Spanish.

I'll echo "fart", also.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I still hate the word "blog". I try to stick with "weblog" but sometimes I just give in.

[cruiser.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on "blog" and really don't like "weblog" either. Few of them actually resemble a "log" in the traditional definition of the word (a ship's record of courses & speeds and significant incidents). Most of them much more closely resemble editorials, columns, or personal journals.

The authors that have taken over a chunk of the role that newspaper columnists have traditionally filled I would refer to as web-columnists and the things they write as web-columns (except where the website has other content, in which case I'd call them editorials).

Personal things like Rosa writes here (and like I write), I'd call online journals, diaries, or perhaps open letters. While the traditional journal doesn't allow comment and other than as letters to the editor, editorials or columns don't offer response space either, improvements in technology allowing comments in near-real-time don't really affect the content much from the original forms.

[sweetbaboo.livejournal.com]

"catheter"

[dbang.livejournal.com]

Oh, and my kids lately have been using the word "weenie" to refer to their penises. I hate hate hate it. Hate it referring to frankfurters, too. I guess I hate all uses of "weenie" except those that refer (pejoratively) to people.

[kcatalyst.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have a lot of words that I dislike because of their history of usage, like epithets as referred to above and "weenie" here. Lots of disphemisms for sex and body parts. But it's not the words themselves I dislike so much as the whole package of history of use. Which, actually is what the word is, of course. Except when talking about word aversions, people often claim it has nothing to do with meaning so I'm trying to play by the rules. Even though I think the rules are incorrect, because, really, otherwise it would be a remarkable coincidence that so many word aversions are for objects, actions and experiences that also spark aversions. Not a lot of people have aversions to "cat" (those stops are so harsh!) and "rainbow" (I have the way those two diphthongs.. uh... diverge from each other).

Right. Back to work.

[cinnabarine.livejournal.com]

"Crisis," "typical," and "hate."

Mostly because of hearing them get severely overused to the point of losing their meaning.

Most other words that people dislike tend to rank among my favorites. Especially dirty, gross, or overly graphic words. And combinations thereof. Such as "pussypanties."

What? Go ahead, say it out loud. Make sure you purse your lips. It'll totally brighten your day.

Re:

[kcatalyst.livejournal.com]

Pussypanties!! Completely awesome.

[dbang.livejournal.com]

Oh, there are also words I hate in their written form, even though they are fine spoken, such as:
medieval
skeptic (that 'k' is wrong!)
any word with a (pronounced) "gh" like "yoghurt"

*cringe*

It's all about the context

[drwex]

For example I loathe the use of the term "junk" to refer to mens' genitalia. If there's one part of my body that is not junk? It'd be that.

I dislike "irony/ironic" because they get used by people who wouldn't know irony if it bit them on the ass, which it usually does. Schadenfreude, now? That's an awesome word.

Unique is up on my hate list because people seem to have no idea what it means and thus produce phrases like "more unique". Conversely, sui generis is just awesome and is almost never used except it was used last night by an NPR reporter in describing Ted Kennedy and I liked that.

Re: It's all about the context

[dbang.livejournal.com]

I disagree vehemently (a great word) that someone who knows what the word "unique" means wouldn't "produce phrases like 'more unique'".

[imvfd.livejournal.com]

Synergy.

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

I may have developed a few new word aversions just by reading the comments on this post.

[pumpkin-pi.livejournal.com]

meteoric

[goat.livejournal.com]

"peeve", especially in combination with "pet".

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

No comment on this. I just want to let you know that I get "The Straight Dope" as a friends' list feed, and in my friends' page view, was this:

The Straight Dope: When's the best time to see the arora borealis?

Aroraborealis: [this post]

[keyne.livejournal.com]

As a kid I couldn't stand the word "gorgeous", which made me think of gorges, in a bad way. (I use it now, though.)

I still cannot handle anything with the cutesy ending "-poo" (as in Witchiepoo, from H.R. Pufnstuf), because of childhood verbal abuse. :/

And like mzrowan, I still wince when I hear my childhood name spoken aloud, even when it's referring to someone else.