Survey shows decline of religious words

[rug]

In the decade that Mississippi State classics professor Robert E. Wolverton Sr. has released his survey of ugliest and most beautiful words, he has noticed a trend -- fewer religious words.

When the survey began, he thought the number of religious words appearing on the survey made sense, since most enrolled at the land-grant university come from Southern small towns where churches typically are centers of great social influence.

With subsequent surveys given every two years, Wolverton said, "There's much less showing up having to do with a religious life."

Among other things, he attributes this to changing of the times. With increased use of smart phones and other portable digital communication devices, he predicted more technology related words likely would be found on future lists.

http://www.cdispatch.com/lifestyles/article.asp?aid=12400

I do not agree that moist is an ugly word.

[izquierdista]

1. Moist IS ugly

When you are spending a summer in Mississippi.

[rug]

3. Well, there are other meanings.

Even in Mississippi.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rug]

4. You're going to get this moved to the Lounge.

I'm trying to keep this on a higher plane.

[Jim__]

5. It's supposed to be based on the sound of the word.

But those lists are clearly based on meaning.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. A lot of English speakers seem to find

Latin-ate words to be more beautiful than the Germanic ones. I don't necessarily agree. Germanic words tend to be more stark and have more well-defined meanings than the words of Latin origin. I also think it's difficult to pick out single words which are 'pretty' or 'ugly.' Context and meaning matter a lot when making such a designation.

[Cirque du So-What]

7. From Donnie Darko I learned

that among phrases in the English language, 'cellar door' is the most 'beautiful' in terms of phonaesthetics - or how it sounds. Since then, I've read that this is especially true when spoken with an English accent.

[LuvNewcastle]

8. I thought about that too.

That's one of my favorite movies.:)