SIX words women hate the most

But a new survey of 500 women from underwear company Knix Wear has revealed that there are in fact six words that they claim to hate most - and while some of the word aversions can be explained by phonetics, perhaps not surprisingly, others bring up bad sexual connotations.

'The common denominator seems to be disgust, either toward bodily functions or sex,' Paul Thibodeau, PhD, a language psychologist at Oberlin College,told Yahoo Health. 

Mark Liberman, PhD, a professor of linguistics at the University of Pennsylvania, explains on his blog Language Log that word aversion is 'a feeling of intense, irrational distaste for the sound or sight of a particular word or phrase', not because it is grammatically incorrect, but because 'the word itself somehow feels unpleasant or even disgusting'.

'Moist', at 77 per cent was - not surprisingly - the most unanimously loathed. 

There’s even a Facebook group called 'I Hate the Word Moist' which boasts nearly 7,000 followers, and in a recent Mississippi State University poll, 'moist' was named as one the ugliest words in the English language.

In fact, the word is so despised that scientists have searched for a reason why. 

Thibodeau and his fellow researchers initially believed that it was the hard '-oist' sound that provoked disgusted reactions, but they noted in a 2014 study that participants did not have the same response to rhyming words such as 'hoist' or 'foist'.

Experts found that participants especially hated the word when it followed vulgar sexual words, but were less grossed out when it came after food-related words, such as cake.

Coming closely behind, at 68 per cent, was 'squirt'. Once again, the researchers believe that this can be explained due to the fact that 'squirting' is slang for female ejaculation - a highly-searched term in porn videos.

Just over half of the women polled - 54 per cent - put 'panties' at the top of their list.

In this case, similar undergarment-related nouns are not reviled: So why are 'underwear' and 'lingerie' okay when panties don't get a pass?

Thibodeau believes that this likely has to do with the weird juxtaposition of the word’s two connotations: one with childhood, the other with – once again - eroticism.

His sentiments are echoed in a Reddit thread dedicated to discussing why so many women hate the word 'panties'. In the thread, one commenter claiming that 'panties' is 'infantilizing and weird,' while another hates the word "because it sounds too sexualized'.

Many people prefer less gender-specific terms such as 'underwear'. A writer for Associated Press argued that the word is too sexy for an everyday expression of what many women view as a utilitarian garment.

Next on the list is 'chunky' - which is fine, the survey noted, when used as a descriptor for peanut butter - just not for people.

Respondents pointed out that unlike words like 'curvy' or 'full-figured', 'chunky' brings to mind a boxy shape rather than an hourglass. image

For 40 per cent of women, 'curd' is a dirty word. Thiboudeau believes that this is because the word sounds similar to several 'gross' things including turd, crud, and curdle.

For the 22 per cent of people who listed 'flap' as a problem word, Thibodeau believes that two facts - similarity to the word 'fap' meaning masturbation - and the medical memories that many associate with the term 'skin flap' – a phrase that is definitely not sexy. 

(dailymail.co.uk)