# Words that sound pretty, but their meanings are not **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 30, 2007, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516 "2007-08-30T16:56:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/41 "2007-09-01T16:54:36Z")
Abattoir, sounds bucolic until you live near one! ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/42 "2007-09-01T17:51:27Z")
[QUOTE=sqweels] Tourette Syndrome. It sounds like a diabolocal urge to ballet dance. [/QUOTE] ‘Asperger’ is another one in the same vein which is a delight to pronounce. So is ‘sour’, certainly when compared to ‘sweet’. [QUOTE=Cazzle] [Alexia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexia_%28disorder%29)… such a pretty name for a little girl. Or a brain disorder. [/QUOTE] Are the pronunciations not different? ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/43 "2007-09-01T18:36:21Z")
_Juvental_ (Hu-ben-talll!) I got this name stuck in my head from some frickin’ half a second credit flash off of some ogdamned TV show. The name is Spanish and this one’s a grip or writer or who knows what… it was such a short flash as to be subliminal. But anyways, the Zorro in my head thinks it is the most texturous and epiphonic word of all languages. The processor just keeps repeating it over and over- rolling the L’s, soft palating the T, stressing the Hu, putting it together taking it apart… Get out! Get out! Get out! Apparently, Juvental is also a pharmaceutical brand name for the beta blocker _Atenolol_. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/44 "2007-09-01T18:53:19Z")
I’ve always like the word _amphetamine_. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/45 "2007-09-01T19:14:56Z")
Addendum:_Juvental_ is probably the Iberianization of one of the two [Saints Juvenal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Juvenal) or maybe the [Satirist Juvenal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juvenal). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/46 "2007-09-01T19:20:35Z")
My absolutely most favorite word is [puce](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puce). It comes from the color of a squashed flea! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2007, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/47 "2007-09-01T21:54:42Z")
The reverse of this would be words with nice meanings that sound nasty. J.R.R. Tolkien thought the word _sky_ had an ugly sound, and he made _skai_ a word in Orkish. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2007, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/48 "2007-09-02T14:50:17Z")
[QUOTE=cher3] There’s someplace around that uses Candida as a business name. Granted they are a biotech firm and all, but still. [/QUOTE] Candida (candid in Spanish) is a popular name around here. I also like **manure**. In my head I pronounce it with a French accent. \*\*Carrion \*\*also sounds like some elegant French word. \*\*Castrate \*\*sounds like an ancient Roman emperor. ---
**Author:** ![rinni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@rinni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rinni)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2007, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/49 "2007-09-02T16:17:30Z")
I’ve always thought the French word “poubelle” was pretty. Poubelle! Pouuubellllle. Pou… belle. It just rolls off the tongue. It is the word for “garbage can”. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2007, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/50 "2007-09-02T16:23:38Z")
Proboscis. I just love the flow of hard sounds. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/51 "2007-09-02T18:19:21Z")
Meconium. Miasma. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/52 "2007-09-02T20:39:45Z")
[QUOTE=Joey P] I’ve always like the word _amphetamine_. [/QUOTE] In that line, how about _heroin_? And it’s a homophone of _heroine_ (like in a story). No wonder people become addicted to it. We should have called it “slugshit” or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Understander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3da27b/32.png) [@The\_Understander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Understander)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2007, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/53 "2007-09-02T20:48:15Z")
Keeping with the drug theme, I think _cocaine_ and _opium_ are quite melodic. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2007, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516/54 "2007-09-03T16:24:13Z")
A varient of one posted earlier. _Effluvium_ or _effluvia_. Often my internal editor will swap these in when I hear of someone being described as affluent. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-that-sound-pretty-but-their-meanings-are-not/417516.md?page=2)