It’s complicated

I think words are pretty magical

A single word can fill our imagination with images, memories and make our bodies tingle with sensation. An intricate dance of tongues, firing off a 1001 invisible mechanisms, spilling our story, feelings from one mind to the next.  

For instance, did you know we use the same facial muscles to say certain words (like moist) as we do to show disgust?

Recently I’ve been fascinated by the unmistakable and often impossible to trace shudder some words cause some people but not others. Anyways, the feeling of cringe we experience when certain words are said or written is down to a psychological curiosity known as “word aversion”.

The work of linguistics professor Paul H. Thibodeau as “a feeling of intense, irrational distaste for the sound or sight of a particular word or phrase, not because its use is regarded as etymologically or logically or grammatically wrong, nor because it’s felt to be over-used or redundant or trendy or non-standard, but simply because the word itself somehow feels unpleasant or even disgusting.”

Anyways, so here we are, down the rabbit hole.

Pen on ink with mixed media. 8.5 x 8.5”