December 28, 2016

12 words to never use in your blog title

Did you know that their are words that people find so distasteful that they shudder when they hear them? Words that people will avoid saying at all costs? Words that they will avoid reading if at all possible. I've seen a certain word referred to as a word that "makes women dry heave when they hear it". 

That seems kind of dramatic to me, but my daughter had 2 particular words she disliked so much when younger that she actually got mad when someone said them to her. Hearing that other people had particular word aversions made me decide to look into this. 

worst words |  blog posts

I found over a dozen lists of words that are considered most hated, distasteful and least favorite. Many of these lists are updated yearly. Polls are actually conducted on this topic. That's some serious work to put into words you dislike! So I started thinking about it and decided that I should avoid using these distasteful words as much as possible in my blog post titles. The hard part is, many of them are quite common.

The world's most hated words


We'll start with a word that was voted The Most Hated Word In The English Language in a global survey conducted by Oxford Dictionaries. 
1) Moist. Even if you're talking about cake, this word is well known to make people gag.

Some of the runners up:
2) Soiled
3) Munch
4) Clogged
5) Yeast
6) Banter
7) Hubby
8) Baby Bump 
9) Cluster
10) Panties
11) Tender
12) Ointment: salve is acceptable though

Several childish words like nom (a word that expresses pleasure when eating), girlies, ginormous and amazeballs also made the lists. I did leave the less common words off my list like: secrete, fester, smear, discharge, flaps, dinky and slurp. I truly don't understand baby bump though. What else are we supposed to call it?

What makes a distasteful word? According to Thought Catalog: For a word to be truly objectionable, it shouldn’t just sound disgusting. The linguistic formula for a disgusting word is to make sure it contains phonetically abrasive letters like “b,” “g,” “m,” “u” and “o,” which you’ll find to be common among the most hated.

Current events also tend to influence these words as recent lists have included: conservative, liberal, Brexit and sadly...the word blog. Blog does has 3 of the most abrasive letters in it though, so I guess that makes sense. It does appear though that some words are influenced by recent overuse. That might actually explain baby bump as it has been used very widely in the past few years.

Personally munch is my least favorite word but it did make Buzzfeeds 28 worst words in the English language so I can't be alone. It just sounds weird. I picture the old bugs bunny cartoon eating an ear of corn with the typewriter "ding" when he gets to the end of it. It's just an awkward word.

There are also polls done on the most hated phrases in America with "no offense, but" "whatever" and "I can't even" taking some of the top honors. With all this though put into what we shouldn't say, it makes me wonder...what should we say?

~L

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13 comments:

  1. We should say "chocolate." I cannot hear that word enough.

    Thanks for the tips!

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  2. I'll be honest--moist makes me cringe :) There are some words on here that I can't really understand (like, "hubby" or "baby bump"--you're right, what else do you call it?!). Thanks for sharing! I'll be sure to steer clear :)

    Stopping in from SITS girls and hope you're enjoying the weekend :)

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  3. Some of these, I get. But hubby? What's wrong with hubby? Oh well. I guess you just can't please everyone and no matter what we write or say, someone just isn't going to like it. (I say that...but secretly...I'll be checking your links to see what words I should no longer be using!)

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  4. haha! I never thought about it, but these words do just have that "ick" factor. I'll have to check out those hated phrases. Interestin!

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  5. This makes me feel better about my strong distaste for the word hubby. I cringe overtime someone says it, but I never really knew why.

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  6. Hm.. Some of these I totally understand.. and I really thought the list was going to go in a totally different direction. This is good to know though. Pinned.

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  7. Hi,
    What a relief. I don't use these!
    Janice

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  8. I am happy to say I have never used any of these :) Banter huh? I can't see that I regularly use that word anyways even in speaking. I think I might just try a mini experiment and watch people's faces! #happynowlinkup

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  9. I'm fond of hubby...
    I guess it is kind of juvenile, but it's quick to type when texting.

    I've used clogged before because it describes something and also conjours up the "clogged" feeling.

    Baby bump surprised me, but then it is overused.

    Word associations are always interesting to follow.

    Zooming by via the Blogger's Pit Stop

    Sara @SaraDuggan.me

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  10. Thanks for sharing at To Grandma's House We Go Link party. Now I have to search my blog for the 'hubby' offense. I'm sure it's there. :)

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