Least favourite words

Alex   Tuesday, March 23, 2004, 22:12 GMT
Weapons of mass destruction...oops, that's not one word. Oh well.
Juan   Wednesday, March 24, 2004, 00:32 GMT
Any rhetoric coming Mr. Bush Jnr's mouth

ei.

Axis of evil
those not with us are against us
bla bla bla
chameau   Friday, March 26, 2004, 17:31 GMT
I second MOIST. Yuck.
mike   Wednesday, March 31, 2004, 18:15 GMT
We hate certain words because we tend to hate ideas behind those words.
The word 'crap' is terrible, for instance, because whenever you say or hear it an image of crap appears in your mind. But suppose the word 'crap' changes its meaning and from now on it refers to e.g. some flavour of ice-cream. If it happened we'd most probably start finding the word quite pleasent. To prove my point I'll give an example from school I went to when I was a little boy. The ugliest girl's name in my class was Justine. For eight years of my primary education the name 'Justine' was one of the worst words I knew. When I went on to secondary school I was terrified to hear that the prettiest girl's name in our school was 'Justine'. That was the time when the meaning of the word 'Justine' began undergoing considerable changes. From extremely unpleasant to neutral to sweet sounding.
I'm afraid there are no nice or bad sounding words. There are just good and bad things they describe.
Lavoisel   Wednesday, March 31, 2004, 19:42 GMT
What Mike says isn't necessarily true. I have known the word "hypothalamus" without knowing the meaning behind it for a long part of my childhood . During that time I used to find it ugly and ludicrous at the same time and I was convinced it was the name of a particularly ugly sort of mollusque.
One more example: how ludicrous does "rohdodendron" sound despite the idea behind it?
Chilli   Wednesday, March 31, 2004, 20:55 GMT
And 'numnah'.
Danger Mouse   Thursday, April 01, 2004, 22:17 GMT
job - ugh!
Juan   Friday, April 02, 2004, 06:29 GMT
Crap is a tone down version of "shit"? So, what's the problem? It's less offensive, isn't it? I don't think its offensive at all. Can see what the fuss is about.
Martin   Monday, April 05, 2004, 22:21 GMT
"Awesome" has become my most disliked word as it has been abused by
illiterates to have no value. Nothing described fear and wonderment as well
as "Awesome" used to. Over here in Canada land you hear "awesome" and
"like" without end i.e. "My dinner like, was like, awesome. Like when will
I ever have a dinner like this again".
SS   Monday, April 05, 2004, 22:35 GMT
Crap and Shit are offensive curse words. ''Shux'' is the euphemism for ''crap'' and ''shit''.
mjd   Monday, April 05, 2004, 23:08 GMT
"Crap" isn't an offensive curse word. It's a slightly vulgar slang term that shouldn't be used during formal situations, but it's not considered as vulgar as "shit" ("crap" isn't bleeped on basic cable, whereas "shit" is). I remember some of my teachers in high school saying "crap" and no one would bat an eye.
Martin   Friday, April 09, 2004, 02:36 GMT
"Allah akbar"
"Die infidel"
"It's still your shot"
"I left my money at home, will you pay the bill?"
Jim   Friday, April 09, 2004, 07:47 GMT
I'm none to fond of "washroom" and "restroom" but I'll leave it at that. I don't want to start that shit again.
...   Friday, April 09, 2004, 14:10 GMT
Jim, a ''restroom'' is a place where you urinate and defecate. A ''rest room'' is a place where you rest.
Tex   Saturday, April 10, 2004, 19:13 GMT
The euphemism "Shux" (or "shucks") sounds quite dated and silly to me, like out of a Leave It To Beaver episode. I might say "crud" which is (to me) slightly less vulgar than "crap". Or "shoot". But I'd probably say "nuts".

And of course all this would only be a substitute for shit when used as an interjection. If you're talking about bodily functions, or shit as a noun, then you have to stick with crud or crap, because you can't say for example "I'm gonna beat the shux out of you!"

My personal favorite is "poop". It's so infantile and harmless, it's hard to take offense, and it usually brings a smile.