I’ve accidentally subscribed to Word Daily, which is a pleasant app that sends me a word daily, usually one I more or less know (appurtenance, centenary, rubicund) but seldom use. This has got me thinking about the looks and sounds of words, in part because I’m sick of the news and would rather think about anything else, but mostly because words have always fascinated me. As a small child I pondered the word SOON and wondered why it had only two Os, and once, during a particularly boring first grade class, I filled up a piece of construction paper with SOOOOOONs of varying length. (Such was my childhood. But “OOOO” is such a beautiful sound! A few grades later I cracked up singing “Battle Hymn of the Republic” because “bosom” is in it. And I wasn’t the only one. The teacher pronounced it “boozum.”)
As poets know, a word can be beautiful set down in the right place, though a few are just too ugly to the ear. For instance, crotch. Imagine a love ode using crotch.
And many are just funny. Years ago I made a list of those.
Adjectives:
Berserk
Blotto
Gassy
Eleemosynary
Flocculent
Ball-peen (thanks, M.J.)
Verbs:
Disembosom
Buttress
Gainsay
Lambaste
Obnubilate
Absquatulate (I got that one from Word Daily!)
Nouns:
Crabapple
Loblolly
Kumquat
Bomb
Blowtorch
Botfly
Flange
Lardoon
Galoot
Poltroon
Spittoon
Besom
Bosom
Disembosomee (not a word, but if it were it would be hilarious)
Frottage
Onus
Larb
Phlebotomist
Philatelist
Nozzle
Rumpus
Nosegay
Yurt
Toom
Haboob
Note: I find these funny-looking and funny-sounding. There are many other words, silly-sounding words, like widdershins, but I don’t find them inherently giggle-inducing.
I see now that many of them feature the letter B. Is it the sound of the B that does it, or the sight? It could double for a body part. You know which ones.
And while we’re on the subject of body parts, is it a coincidence that 3 female reproductive body parts begin with V? See the V?
I’m guessing you already know two of the words but you didn’t know we also have a
VESTIBULE !!!
which I didn’t know until yesterday, when I read about a woman who underwent a vestibulectomy, which isn’t even remotely funny.
They don’t call it an anteroom, foyer, lounge, or threshold. They call it a vestibule. I’d prefer “lobby.”
That’s it. Any thoughts on words, funny-looking or otherwise? I’m collecting them.
kerfuffle! and lots of yiddish words
I would also like to nominate mastication, matriculation, jiggery-pokery (but I love that one) and finagle.