Words I Do Not Like

The word “pulchritude” is too ugly to mean “beauty.” “Salvia” looks too much like “saliva” to be a nice flower name, and “scabiosa” is even ickier. My least favorite word of the moment, though, is “bloviate.” It ought to be a good word, because it sounds like what it means (to speak pompously; i.e., to “blow”). But it’s an ugly-sounding word, which makes me think of blowflies, and it’s often used in reference to a person (Donald Trump) whose behavior is even uglier. So in my mind the word is connected to the image of maggots feasting on rotting meat and the image of Donald Trump, making “bloviate” the most unpleasant word I know.