Ugly-sounding words can describe beautiful things
The meanings and negative associations of moist make it ugly, just as positive associations can make other words seem lovely.
Staff
People seem to dislike the sound of the word moist. It tops so many 鈥淯gliest Words in the English Language鈥� lists that psychologists at Oberlin College in Ohio and Trinity University in Texas decided to investigate. Their study participants tended to blame the word鈥檚 鈥減honological properties.鈥� 鈥淚t just has an ugly sound that makes whatever you鈥檙e talking about sound gross,鈥� one person said. Foist, hoist, and rejoice, though, did not evoke negative responses, despite their similar sound patterns. Participants thought 鈥渕oist cake鈥� 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 鈥渇ingernails scratching a chalkboard.鈥澛�
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 鈥渂eautiful,鈥� though most people find the word anything but. It derives from the Latin pulcher (鈥渂eautiful,鈥� 鈥渘oble鈥�), and seems to have first been used in English as a way to elevate one鈥檚 tone. One 14th-century text, for example, describes what poetry does as taking 鈥渢he truth鈥� and dressing it up in 鈥渙blique [indirect] figurations with pulchritude.鈥� In other words, poetry makes things less clear but better sounding.聽
When John Milton was looking for a synonym for 鈥渞adiance鈥� in his poem 鈥淧aradise Lost鈥� (1667), he took effulgence from the Latin ex + fulgere (鈥渢o shine forth鈥�). This word does a great job of conveying the radiant splendor of God. From a phonological standpoint, though, it leaves something to be desired.聽
If you want another way to say 鈥渢wilight,鈥� you might go with crepuscular. Or you might not, unless you are a biologist or a poet trying to rhyme 鈥渕uscular.鈥� Crepuscular is the scientific term for animals, like cats, that are most active around dawn and dusk, as opposed to diurnal dogs or nocturnal raccoons.聽
By some measures, these three words should sound good. They have more than three syllables, contain 鈥渓鈥� sounds, and derive from 鈥渕usical鈥� Latin 鈥� factors that, as we discussed last week, tend to make words pleasant sounding. They seem to be semantically irreproachable, too. Beauty, splendid radiance, twilight 鈥� who could find fault with those?
Perhaps the cacophony of their consonant clusters (lchr, nc, cr) and their plosive sounds (鈥減鈥� and 鈥渒鈥�) outweigh the loveliness of their other features. Or maybe we appreciate their meanings but object to how they mark whatever discourse they appear in as self-consciously 鈥渆ducated.鈥� If you think moist is bad, consider its near synonym, muculent.