By Kathy Hughes
Contributing columnist
We’ve all heard of good words and bad words, but what about beautiful words and ugly words? Several years ago, I challenged myself to find the most beautiful sounding word in the English language. It is a disappointment that I’ve never been able to put the results of my research to work.
Recently, I learned of a survey published in The Huffington Post seeking to identify the ugliest words in English. Now that took me back a bit, and I was very interested to learn the results. According to the poll, the ugliest word in English is “moist” as the outstanding winner. That choice puzzled me, but I read on — other words on the list included curd, phlegm, vomit, pulp and mucus.
Personally, I would not fall within the 18 percent or more to chose moist; instead, at the top of my list would be “suck” (and all words that rhyme with it). I agree with vomit and curd; however, “rural” struck me as a curious inclusion and also did not rate on my list; another peculiar one was “panties.” Some remaining words were ointment, slurp and lugubrious.
The authors of the study concluded: “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.” Two other criteria appear to be words associated with body functions — words that are difficult to pronounce (“rural” being an example) and words that are socially unacceptable.
I wonder what words would turn up in a survey of the most beautiful sounding words? Most likely the results would again be associated with certain letters or sounds, and perhaps meaning would also play a role.
Beautiful words among my winning dictionary favorites were words starting with “L” (yes, I do read the dictionary), and there are only two of them, so far. By now, you are probably feeling unbearable suspense (I like that word, “suspense,” now added to the list) to find out what words I chose. Coming in first is — ta-da— “leather.” I like the way it sounds and seems to caress your mouth — try it, and you may agree. A close second was the word “lily.” There you have it — the good, the bad and the ugly of the English language.
