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Ugly-sounding words can describe beautiful things
The Christian Science Monitor ^ | April 2, 2020 | Melissa Mohr, Correspondent

Posted on 04/03/2020 7:37:35 AM PDT by Jagermonster

The meanings and negative associations of moist make it ugly, just as positive associations can make other words seem lovely.
People seem to dislike the sound of the word moist. It tops so many “Ugliest Words in the English Language” lists that psychologists at Oberlin College in Ohio and Trinity University in Texas decided to investigate. Their study participants tended to blame the word’s “phonological properties.” “It just has an ugly sound that makes whatever you’re talking about sound gross,” one person said. Foist, hoist, and rejoice, though, did not evoke negative responses, despite their similar sound patterns. Participants thought “moist cake” was just fine, too. It was only when they were cued to associate the word with disgust at bodily functions that they likened moist to “fingernails scratching a chalkboard.”

The meanings and negative associations of moist make it ugly, just as positive associations can make mother into one of the most beautiful words in English. There are some words, though, that defy this pattern; (almost) everyone agrees they sound terrible, but they signify something lovely. Ironically, pulchritudinous means “beautiful,” though most people find the word anything but. It derives from the Latin pulcher (“beautiful,” “noble”), and seems to have first been used in English as a way to elevate one’s tone. One 14th-century text, for example, describes what poetry does as taking “the truth” and dressing it up in “oblique [indirect] figurations with pulchritude.” In other words, poetry makes things less clear but better sounding.

When John Milton was looking for a synonym for “radiance” in his poem “Paradise Lost” (1667), he took effulgence from the Latin ex + fulgere (“to shine forth”). This word does a great job of conveying the radiant splendor of God.

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: moist
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Emphatically NOT coronavirus-related. Excerpted per rules.
1 posted on 04/03/2020 7:37:35 AM PDT by Jagermonster
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To: Jagermonster

Moist, crepuscular pulchritude.


2 posted on 04/03/2020 7:41:55 AM PDT by ZirconEncrustedTweezers (Posting from deep within enemy territory - San Jose, CA)
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To: Jagermonster

Fulminate, verisimilitude, Biden...


3 posted on 04/03/2020 7:44:59 AM PDT by BBB333 (The Power Of Trump Compels You!)
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To: Jagermonster

There is an old joke about Europeans discussing which nation had the most beautiful language. The Frenchman mentioned the word “papillion” for “butterfly”. The Spaniard claimed that whatever word the Spanish use for “butterfly” was better (my memory fails me on Spanish right now).

The German said, “What about Schmetterling??”


4 posted on 04/03/2020 7:46:06 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: Jagermonster

Mamma, why do these words sound so nasty?


5 posted on 04/03/2020 7:46:12 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Seth Rich] == [the Democrats' John Dean])
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Another day, another coordinated assault on freedom of speech.
Peter Serafinowicz abdicates. Also, Susie Dent hates words

Peter Serafinowicz abdicates. Also, Susie Dent hates words

6 posted on 04/03/2020 7:48:38 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Jagermonster

I’ve always found “niggardly” to be one of those words.


7 posted on 04/03/2020 7:50:27 AM PDT by Migraine
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To: ClearCase_guy
The German said, “What about Schmetterling??”

And "aschenputtel" too!

See the other half of this series here: https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/In-a-Word/2020/0326/Beautiful-sounding-words-float-like-gossamer
8 posted on 04/03/2020 7:51:20 AM PDT by Jagermonster ("God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16, NKJV.)
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To: Jagermonster

pulchritudinous

The word I thought of when I read the title. What an odd word.


9 posted on 04/03/2020 7:52:11 AM PDT by tiki
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To: ClearCase_guy
Spanish for butterfly = mariposa.

Thinking of schmetterling, when I was a kid my big brother convinced me (briefly) that the German word for bra (as in brassiere) was...

holzemfrumfloppen

:o)

10 posted on 04/03/2020 7:53:02 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("I won't back down, baby ... There ain't no easy way out...")
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To: Jagermonster

Great post. Thanks.

I would guess you’re a fan of Richard Lederer’s radio shows, books etc.
on the English language ?

An example....

Answers repose at the end of this column.

1. Can you anagram the letters in new door to make one word?

2. What word, when you add a syllable to it, becomes shorter?

3. Which is correct: 9 and 7 is 15 or 9 and 7 are 15?

4. Pronounce out loud the word formed by each of the following letter series: M-A-C-D-O-N-A-L-D, M-A-C-B-E-T-H, M-A-C-H-I-N-E-R-Y.

5. Pronounce out loud the words formed by each of the following letter series: B-O-A-S-T, C-O-A-S-T, R-O-A-S-T. Now, what do you put in a toaster?

6. How many mistakes can you find in this sentence?: “Their are five mistaiks in this sentance.”

7. Name three consecutive days without using the words Wednesday, Friday or Sunday.

8. Pronounce out loud the words formed by each of the following letter series: B-O-A-S-T, C-O-A-S-T, R-O-A-S-T. Now, what do you put in a toaster?

9. Susan’s mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child’s name?

10. A clerk at the butcher shop is 5 feet 10 inches tall and wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh?

11. Read the following sentence slowly and just once, counting the number of F’s:

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULT
OF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDY

How many F’s did you find?

12. My name is Stan, and I have five sisters. Each of my sisters has one brother. How many children did my parents have?

13. If a peacock and a half lays an egg and a half in a day and a half, How many eggs will three peacocks lay in three days?

14. A cowboy had 15 cows. All but nine died. How many cows did he have left?

15. Who can jump higher than a house?

Answers

one word 2. short 3. The answer is 16. 4. The last word is pronounced masheenery, not MacHinery. 5. bread 6. Four. There are only three errors in the sentence, so the word five becomes the fourth mistake. 7. yesterday, today and tomorrow 8. bread 9. Susan 10. meat 11. Five. Most people get only three. 12. Six — five girls and one boy 13. None. Peacocks don’t lay eggs. Peahens do. 14. nine. 15. Anyone can. A house can’t jump.


11 posted on 04/03/2020 7:55:53 AM PDT by jcon40 (The other post before yours really nails it for me. IOr keep people from / PC ing in ver and alway)
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To: Jagermonster

Fecund


12 posted on 04/03/2020 8:04:00 AM PDT by PlateOfShrimp
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To: Jagermonster

Bookmark


13 posted on 04/03/2020 8:05:52 AM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (The more I learn about people, the more I like my dog.)
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To: Jagermonster

“Navin, do you know why a woman of such pulchritude is married to a man like me?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu0ONkXd7xU


14 posted on 04/03/2020 8:06:11 AM PDT by bwest
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To: Jagermonster

I’ve always liked the word “piano”. Which in German, I believe, is “klunkenplinken”.


15 posted on 04/03/2020 8:06:18 AM PDT by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Texas Eagle; SaveFerris

“There is sauerkraut in my Lederhosen”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w_mBnzyVTg


16 posted on 04/03/2020 8:12:41 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: BBB333
Fulminate, verisimilitude, Biden...

Biden does NOT describe a beautiful thing,

17 posted on 04/03/2020 8:15:02 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: ShadowAce

Actually...

Biden:
: a large genus of herbs (family Compositae) native to the warmer parts of both hemispheres that have divided or compound leaves and yellow flowers and the usually flattened achenes armed with barbed awns


18 posted on 04/03/2020 8:20:29 AM PDT by Leep (Everyday is Trump Day!)
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To: Leep
Look at that--I learned something today.

His name actually describes his intelligence.

19 posted on 04/03/2020 8:24:53 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

I was told it was “jugschlinger.”


20 posted on 04/03/2020 8:28:23 AM PDT by IronJack
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