That's What They Say 8:05 am Sun November 3, 2013  Icky words
and why people hate them  There is one word that lots of people
hate—moist. What makes this an icky word?  On this week’s
edition of That’s What They Say, Host Rina Miller and University
of Michigan English Professor Anne Curzan talk about icky words
and why we dislike them.  It’s difficult to pinpoint why people
detest the term moistMoist-haters often claim the problem is the
way the word sounds, yet they don’t have the same reaction to
similar sounding words like foist. The sexual connotation
of moist probably adds to the discomfort the term creates.  In
the spring of 2012, the New Yorker’s Culture Desk blog ran a
contest that allowed participants to vote for a word to drop
from the English language. As expected, about 1 in 10 people
voted to throw out moist.  Some other words people loath were
mostly because of semantics. War and hate were often chosen
because of their meanings.  Other commonly despised words were
chosen for their usage, includi