Me when I hear the word "moist."
Surprised?
Not content knowing that moist is the most cringe-worthy word, underwear manufacturer Knix Wear — famous for their odor eradicating technology — decided to find the words that women hated the most.
They enlisted the help of University of Pennsylvania linguist Mark Liberman andsurveyed 500 women to discover the words they found most disgusting, revolting, repellent, and just plain icky.
You don't even need to hear these words in a sentence; the word alone is enough to make one uncomfortable. The top six words from the least stomach turning to the "I threw up a little in my mouth and feel dirty" words:
- Flap. It sounds vaguely not good and makes me think of a wounded bird with a broken arm. Sad.
- Curd. If something curdles, it's immediately disgusting, but curds are related to cheese. Little Miss Muffet ate curds and whey, which is actually a stuck-up way of saying cottage cheese. I don't like lemon curd, but I like high tea so I often get lemon curd as a present.
- Chunky. If you call someone chunky, it's body-shaming 101, but chunky foods aren't bad.
- Panties. For reasons unknown, there's just something creepy about panties.
- Squirt. Squirting goes hand in hand with female ejaculation and doesn't sound right when discussing current events or holiday plans.
- Moist. Moist is everybody's unfavorite word, probably because of how it feels to say.
Strangely, words like discharge, smear, labia, and ointment didn't make the Top 6, but they do still invoke word aversion.
Check out this video from the Knix Wear study:
