there is water underground.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

In Honor of National Grammar Day

Our language has over 400,000 words. That’s a lot of words. Many are commonplace, like “sandwich” or “cable.” Many are used very infrequently, like “cloaca” or “subterfuge.” My favorite word is “effervescence” – the only word with five es each separated by two consonants. Words are amazing. And yet, there are some words that – while they are not dirty in and of themselves – well, simply sound dirty. They’re the kind of words that make educated Beavises and Buttheads snicker. Here now is a far-from-complete list of some of the words that just sound dirty.

• Doppelganger
• Mumps
• Finagle
• Mastication
• Spelunker
• Flagella
• Kumquat
• Moist
• Dangling Participle
• Pinochle
• Carpetbagger
• Flugelhorn
• Sloop
• Stimulus
• Package
• Stimulus Package
• Moist Stimulus Package (okay, now we’re getting ridiculous)
• Smorgasbord
• Nebbish
• Plethora
• Thwart

Special thanks are due to Kathy for assistance with this project. And Robin Williams too.

2 Comments:

Blogger Howland said...

I've always like magenta. Always makes me think dirty. But lots of stuff makes me think dirty. You always make me think dirty...mainly cause I like your butt.

11:05 PM  
Blogger Mistress of Life said...

Now that I'm in nursing school I have a whole new vocabulary. I love that. I just taught someone today what Doppelganger meant coincidence... I think not. Hope you are well.

4:26 PM  

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