The Tenth of June has been and gone
and, according to The Sun,
it left us with a dubious gift:
one million words of English.
Two million folk in Shakespeare’s world
spoke one hundred thousand words:
seventeen hundred were his own;
many more have been home-grown.
I’m glad our language is so rich
but there’s a word that makes me itch:
I cringe when I hear ‘gobsmacked’:
I despise it much, and that’s a fact.
Coarse speech is not a modern scourge
yet I cannot help but urge
you all to get up a petition:
let’s send ‘gobsmacked’ to perdition.
***
I couldn’t find the original article but here’s The Guardian on the same subject.
And I really do hate the ‘g’ word.
What word/s do you despise?
***
Poetry Fluff 
I cringe every time I hear sensible, intelligent, articulate people using “f*cking” as an intensifier – there are so many more, much better words they could use. But it’s also gone into German now!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s everywhere! In fact, it is in such common usage, authors, film makers and creatives everywhere use the ‘c’ word for a shock factor instead.
LikeLike
It’s interesting to see which words become taboo or swear words in different languages – English does seem obsessed by sexual references nowadays, I think more so than say 50 or 60 years ago when “bloody” was considered shocking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
True! But everything was more shocking then than it is now. I’m not sure which I prefer…
LikeLike
I’m an oddball,
It must be said,
But ‘boulevard’
Does in my head!
…I have no idea why, but I cringe inwardly whenever I see or hear it (which, fortunately, isn’t that often!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I suspect there’s no rhyme or reason why certain words rub us up the wrong way; they just do.
Solidarity, bro!
LikeLiked by 1 person