I’ve been meditating on words that rhyme with “budge.”
[ul]
[li]fudge[/li][li]grudge[/li][li]judge[/li][li]nudge[/li][li]sludge[/li][li]smudge[/li][li]trudge[/li][/ul]
Plus other words that have that sound, like “drudgery” and “pudgy.”
All of them have more-or-less negative connotations (except fudge and judge, and even those aren’t exactly light-hearted, fun words).
Is there some kind of onomotopoeia (sp., fer sher) dynamic here? Do the words convey “udginess,” or has udginess arisen out of the confluence of sounds?
Looking at the dictionary-listed origins, they all started out differently - they may have converged partly due to some kind of effect like you describe, but they didn’t originate by it.
Budgies are cute. And “budge” is a negative only if the stubborn so-and-so won’t do it.
And the only negative connotation of “fudge” comes from its use as a nicer alternative to a rude word with which it shares a couple of letters. Otherwise, what isn’t fun about a cooling pan of yummy candy?
And “judge,” as a noun, eventually leads one to think about someone in legal trouble, but it also conjures up images of learning, wisdom, fairness and respectibility. Contrast it with the word “politician,” say, which shares syllables with the very nice word “polite.” And “judge” as a verb is merely a thought process we all do every day.
And “nudge” describes a gentle, friendly contact, often between people who are sharing a joke. Contrast with the word “jostle,” which contains a couple of softer syllables but depicts a much harder and more impersonal meeting of two bodies.
You may be describing a slightly different phenomenon: words whose ugly sounds obscure a neutral or even positive meaning. As for why the sound spelled “udge” might seem ugly to us, you’d need an expert, and I’m not one. I don’t have the reaction to it you and others do, myself.
My uncle sometimes refers to his sister, my aunt Margie (whose proper name is Margaret), as “Mudge.” She is quite attractive and friendly, not “udgy” at all.
I was out. My commute is an hour each way. (This was actually far more interesting than what I’m often thinking about while I drive.)
My question is, for those who think “udge” is an ugly sound – do we think it’s ugly because it’s associated with these words, or did the words get their negative connotation (if any – I hear ya, King of Soup) because of the sound?
(This was actually far more interesting than what I’m often thinking about while I drive.)