What words do you absolutely hate? Which ones do you adore?
There are lots of words that fall into either category, and I'm sure that someone will chime in with a word in comments and I'll be like "Yeah! that IS a heinous word!" But I'm going to go with the first word I thought of, a word that I dislike ever reading, whether in a cookbook, a parenting magazine or a book: MOIST.
I can trace this dislike all the way back to elementary school. (And I can link it to my Tumble 4 You 80's crush, Duran Duran, too. How's that for talented?) In one of the many teeny bopper magazines I'd squander coin on, there was a picture of Nick Rhodes next to a painting. All I remember about this painting was that it was the word 'moist' in the Roy Lichtenstein comic style. Nick Rhodes is standing next to the painting pouting, his lipstick unusually, well, moist.
What's wrong with this word? Nothing really. I just find it distasteful. I hate the inbetween-ness of it - how equivocal it is - not wet, not dry, but some degree in between. Even when used to describe roast chicken or cake, I don't like it. It probably comes from my early reading addiction to lurid romance novels. You know, the purpler the prose, the better. If things weren't moist, you weren't having fun. Of course, when I was reading these books, I hadn't even kissed a boy yet, so I didn't know better. But moist remains a world I can't like.
I love a lot of words - much too many to name. Our family love words, we love playing with words, because words are supposed to be fun and flexible, liquid (not moist!) We have words that we've made up for our family - words that define us and that link us to each other, and our memories. But I can't tell you them, because they're private. But one word that I can think of is CRAFT. I like it particularly when used as a verb. I like it because even if you're just writing a scene, you're really crafting it. Crafting evokes a sense of being hand-made, of taking elements, like stone and metal, mud and clay and using the dexterity of your hands to fashion the elements into something other. Transmogrified. I like that word, too.
What about you, what words do you love? And hate?
