I’ve never really understood why the word “moist” makes me cringe. I enjoy using moisturizer on my face and body, and the word can connote good things -- like cake. And yet, I tend to avoid using the word; it just sounds, well, icky, and I don’t like the feel of it coming from my lips. And because you're already cringing, too, you know I'm not alone. Lots of people have a similar aversion to this mostly harmless word — it's been called the most hated word in the country. Researchers at Oberlin College and Trinity University decided to explore the logic behind the aversion using three experiments that suggest semantic features of the word “moist” -- like its associations with bodily functions -- are the underlying cause of our collective disgust.
Researchers asked participants (brave, brave participants) to rate a collection of words from a list of categories that include taboo, disgust, positive, negative, etc., in conjunction with six dimensions like familiarity, imagery, arousal, aversiveness and use. One goal of the experiment was to determine whether moist-averse people demonstrate an aversion to words with similar semantic or phonetic properties, words like “damp” or “sticky” and “hoist” or “rejoiced.”
Is it the sound? The meaning?
Participants were asked to rate those words, which were designed to ensure the word “moist” was presented in a sexual or culinary context. Following the experiment, they offered up whether or not they find the word “moist” gross, and if so, why.
21 percent of the study participants demonstrated an aversion to the word, and the research found the context didn’t matter very much – people just don’t like it. “It just has an ugly sound that makes whatever you’re talking about sound gross,” said one participant.
But what's interesting is the participants didn’t report an aversion to similar-sounding words, so it’s more than just the sound of the word that people dislike. One reason might be that because the word is so off-putting and attention-grabbing, it elicits an autonomic response that forces us to react strongly based on a person’s subjective experience.
The researchers found context did matter (a little bit). “Moist” is perceived as way more disgusting when preceded by sexual words like “fuck” and “pussy” (both were used in the experiment.) But when presented with culinary words, like “cake,” it was found more acceptable, indicating that the context changes the word's connotation, priming your response. Moist-aversive participants also reported higher aversions to words like “damp,” suggesting the dislike stems from semantic association.
When dictionary.com surveyed its readers for their least-favorite words, they found disgust did rank high overall in user-submitted unacceptable words, not just "moist" — words associated with bodily function (like vomit, mucus, etc.) were extremely unflavored. But disgust doesn’t have to be visceral and physical to hit home. Just check out this Reddit thread on hated words, where many people lashed out at the word “hubby.”
“I'm not 100% sure why, but something about it just seems so... demeaning to both parties involved. He isn't your hubby, he's your husband. You're not an idiot, and you can enunciate a seven-letter word when referring to the person you chose to spend the rest of your life with,” writes user Tuxedoace. “You're an adult. Fucking act like it.”
I never really gave the word much thought, but now find that I, too, don’t like it. It does sound stupid.
Gender-flipping the term is also cringe-worthy, apparently, according to MiaK123, who also despises “wifey”: “Particularly bad when they are not your actual spouse.”
“Moist” still takes the cake, though. Whether presented in the context of food or sex -- or at all, really -- most still agree the word is just gross.
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