I like most words. I am happy experiencing a lot of words. Copiously prolix, am I.
There are a few words, however, that I do not enjoy. They include:
Snuggle.
Cuddle.
Cozy.
Slurp.
Let's investigate.
Snuggle and cuddle fall into the same category of unpleasantness for me. They are so often used for description of "spending time physically entwined with one's significant other," but with cutesy, deliberately or euphemistically nonsexual overtones. These words might be appropriate in the context of young (literally juvenile) people, but for adults -- no. I'm not sure what word would be appropriate; clearly we do need a "non-sexual physical proximity" word out there in the world. Not these words, though. Ew.
Cozy is not as bad as snuggle or cuddle. It is snuggle/cuddle adjacent in my mind, though, so I also include it in the list of words I do not enjoy.
Slurp. Just reading it, without even hearing the word aloud, makes me shudder, because I can hear the sound associated with the word inside my head when I see the word, and that puts my teeth on edge. No. Do not use this word.
Munch. It is very similar to slurp, except... drier somehow? I do not care for this word either.
Birth. Not as in "birthday" (which is fine), but as in, "to give birth" or "childbirth". In my primitive brain there is violence and pain associated with birth in those contexts. There is no rocket science behind my aversion: the hatchings of the Offspring, overall, were difficult, frightening, unpleasant experiences. I don't want to think about that any more. The Offspring are lovely people, and we can talk about them instead of the process by which they entered this world.
There are some words which other people loathe, which do not bother me at all. For example:
moist.
Nothing inherently wrong with moistness. Sometimes moistness is particularly positive, as in a moist cake. Mmmm, cake. The problem with moist is that it has been sexualized in a way that people do not like: for example, used as in the phrase, moist panties. Why is there a problem with the words used to indicate female sexual desire? Hmmm. What other words would you use instead?
Actually, I don't care much for the word panties, now that I think about it. It's a little infantilizing. It's not as viscerally repellent a word as the others above, though, so we'll let that one go for now.
I think, perhaps, that a Part II: Pleasant Words, should be created, just to round matters out. Stay tuned....
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