Sometimes our perspective on language isn't exactly rational: we love some words and absolutely despise other ones. What inspires such deep feelings, and why does word hate often seem to run hotter than word love? In the case of words like impactful, discussed in yesterday's Red Pen Diaries, the bad vibes may arise because of an association with vacuous management-speak or other institutional jargon. But other times a word is disliked because it just sounds, well, icky. A look at some of the favorite and least favorite words selected by Visual Thesaurus subscribers offers some insight on verbal attractions and aversions.
It’s all kind of interesting, if not especially deep; but it’s worth a look all the same. Also: Don’t click on any of the links for individual words, unless you want a try/buy Visual Thesaurus window to pop up, which then forces your original browser window to go to a “Thanks for trying…!” page when you close it.
Link via Bookninja
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