Subject: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 06 Feb 05 - 12:55 PM No, I don't have too much time on my hands. I've just been doing a lot of the type of dull, repetitive manual labor that leaves one's mind free to wonder about weird stuff. Specifically, I've been sawing up and burning trees that Hurricane Ivan knocked down back in September. So, it has occurred to me that, though hurricanes are one of my very least favorite things, the actual word "hurricane" is quite lovely. It has intrinsic beauty. If it didn't already mean what it does, it would make a very nice name for a flower. And "hurricane" isn't the only beautiful name for a natural disaster. "Tornado" and "tsunami" are beautiful words as well. Most nasty things seem to usually have either nasty short little clippy names or long unpronouncable things that require too much effort. "Cancer" is just an ugly word. And who could possibly ever think "infarction" is beautiful? But there are exceptions. And, since I'm not feeling quite 100% this morning, the words "nausea" and "vertigo" have popped into mind and I've found that they resonate quite nicely if one can disassociate their sounds from their meanings. Any other candidates? How about "fistula"? |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Com Seangan Date: 06 Feb 05 - 01:11 PM The President of America for George W. Bush. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Rapparee Date: 06 Feb 05 - 01:14 PM Yersinia pestis. Such a lovely name, sound like a beautiful sort of tree or flowering shrub ("Yes, my yard is hedged with Yersinia Pestis -- isn't it lovely this Spring?". Variola major sounds like someone in charge of the variolas in a band, perhaps like a pipe major. Mycobacterium leprae sounds like something that changes grape juice into a truly great wine. And Tabin and Sarin sound like artificial sweeteners. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Linda Kelly Date: 06 Feb 05 - 01:19 PM rubella and hemlock lovely words but.... |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Ebbie Date: 06 Feb 05 - 01:21 PM "And may I introduce my daughters, Diarrhea and Pestilence? |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: dianavan Date: 06 Feb 05 - 01:52 PM Bacteria |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: GUEST Date: 06 Feb 05 - 01:55 PM pussy I detest cats |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: open mike Date: 06 Feb 05 - 02:00 PM Yersinia pestis. Variola major Mycobacterium leprae Tabin Sarin so, Rap., what are they all? the agent taht causes leprosy? is sarin the gas that terrorists use in subways? |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 06 Feb 05 - 02:15 PM "Ebola" has a nice ring to it. And "influenza" is nice, though the abbreviated version "flu" sounds about as appealing as "grippe" or "gout". |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Jeri Date: 06 Feb 05 - 02:46 PM Cloaca Chelazia Onchocerciasis Trypanosomiasis, passed by bloodsucking Reduviidae Borrelia burgdorferi Nor for you, nor for I, Leads to a very bad time And makes you quite sick When Ixodes - a tick Bites you, and passes on Lyme (I used to love saying "Borrelia burgdorferi.") Thanks...all the public health stuff is coming back now. Remember Tony Orlando and Dawn singing "Candida?" |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Alaska Mike Date: 06 Feb 05 - 02:49 PM How about "heroine" |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Raedwulf Date: 06 Feb 05 - 03:13 PM Sarbox doesn't sound nice at all. To me it sounds like a bloody nerve agent. But if management dumping Operations responsibility for the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation in my lap (we're quoted in the US & have to comply) means I get my next contract renewal, it's a *beautiful* word! ;-) |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 06 Feb 05 - 03:24 PM What's wrong with "heroine", Alaska? Boondoggle is a really jolly sounding word. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 06 Feb 05 - 03:43 PM I think Alaska Mike might have meant "heroin". But it's understandable that heroin should be a pleasant sounding word. For a brief time heroin was a legally obtainable "cure" for morphine addiction. Easier to sell if it has a nice marketable name. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: *Laura* Date: 06 Feb 05 - 03:52 PM chlamydia - sounds like some sort of underwater plant. :-s |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Rapparee Date: 06 Feb 05 - 04:45 PM Yersinia pestis: the active ingredient in Bubonic Plague. Variola major: the major cause of smallpox. Mycobacterium leprae: Hanson's Disease, earlier known as leprosy. Tabin: Nerve Gas, a/k/a VX. Sarin: Nerve Gas first used by the Nazis, a/k/a GB. And Necrotizing Fasciitis sound to me like a gentle, creeping, flowering ground cover. (It's also known as flesh-eating bacteria and very, very nasty indeed.) |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Ebbie Date: 06 Feb 05 - 04:49 PM "Boondoggle is a really jolly sounding word." LOL |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Peace Date: 06 Feb 05 - 04:52 PM Coitus interruptus "Uh, yes, as we were strolling down memory lane, a vision of coitus interruptus popped into my mind. It was lovely." |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 06 Feb 05 - 05:04 PM GUEST of 1:55 p.m.: You said you hate cates. But only if you're talking about felines does that nice-sounding word fit in this thread. Dave Oesterreich |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Rapparee Date: 06 Feb 05 - 05:05 PM "Coitus Interruptus" is one of the spells taught at Hogwarts. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Chris Green Date: 06 Feb 05 - 05:30 PM "Latrine". If I ever have a daughter, that's what she'll be called! |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 06 Feb 05 - 05:33 PM kamikaze and harikari have a plesant enough sound. And Osama is a name with a pleasant ring to it. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: GUEST,heric Date: 06 Feb 05 - 11:48 PM zephyr |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: number 6 Date: 06 Feb 05 - 11:56 PM Human Resources ..... I prefer the nicer (one) word personnel. forget heroin ..... crank is a lot nastier ! sIx |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: GUEST,Splott Man without a cookie Date: 07 Feb 05 - 06:44 AM There's a nasty food bug called B. Cereus (say it loud) |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: GUEST,Flamenco ted Date: 07 Feb 05 - 06:48 AM Northumbrian Smallpipes. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: GUEST,Rapaire Date: 07 Feb 05 - 08:56 AM Seppuku sounds like a Japanese dish. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: number 6 Date: 07 Feb 05 - 09:59 AM abattoire ..... now there's a place with a pleasant ambiance |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: jimmyt Date: 07 Feb 05 - 10:05 AM Peroni Priapism |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: TheBigPinkLad Date: 07 Feb 05 - 12:18 PM Shania |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Micca Date: 07 Feb 05 - 01:46 PM Here are 4 that sound like they might be quite nice things, from the "Chemicals with Silly names" site Putrescine, Cadaverine, Spermine and Spermidine Putrescine originates in putrefying and rotting flesh, and is quite literally, the smell of death. It is one of the breakdown products of some of the amino-acids found in animals, including humans. Although the molecule is a poisonous solid, as flesh decays the vapour pressure of the putrescine it contains becomes sufficiently large to allow its disgusting odour to be detected. It is usually accompanied by cadaverine (named after the cadavers that give rise to it), a poisonous syrupy liquid with an equally disgusting smell. Putrescine and cadaverine also contribute towards the smells of some living processes. Since they are both poisonous, the body normally excretes them in whatever way is quickest and most convenient. For example, the odour of bad breath and urine are 'enriched' by the presence of these molecules, as is the smell of semen, which also contains the related molecules spermine and spermidine. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: dwditty Date: 07 Feb 05 - 01:47 PM Sweet Breads |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: dwditty Date: 07 Feb 05 - 01:48 PM or is it Sweetbreads? |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: pdq Date: 07 Feb 05 - 02:13 PM Jeri: thanks for the 'tick poem'. By the way, isn't Serratia marcescens a French cabaret singer? |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Raedwulf Date: 07 Feb 05 - 02:16 PM Nothing nasty about sweetbreads. Very nice. Mind you, they are offal, so if you don't like offal (& there's a nasty (awful? ;-) word for a number of things usually very nice)... |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Com Seangan Date: 07 Feb 05 - 02:19 PM Mike Hunt |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Cool Beans Date: 07 Feb 05 - 03:16 PM The Ventures did a great version of "Chlamydia." Or was it "Perfidia"? I forget. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: jimmyt Date: 07 Feb 05 - 03:27 PM MIcca!!! Good Organic references! Hadn't thought of Putrecine or Cadaverine for many years. How about Caproic acid? sort of goat like, wouldn't you think? As an aside, we used to have a Chesnut tree that smelled like semen when it bloomed (I'm told) One time my friend came out in my back yard, promptly turned up his nose and said,"oh yuck, that smells like semen," Before I could agree as to the unnpleasent aroma, his wife walked out and said, "oh, what a lovely fragrance." "You are one lucky man," I told him. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Mr Red Date: 07 Feb 05 - 04:20 PM Pure Finding - collecting dogshit Victorian trade defuct by the 30's though John Lee (Crediton Folk Festival) reckoned the tannery inClyton had a shit pit in the 50's. Kind of thing some people write songs about - oh what a giveawy......... |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Jeri Date: 07 Feb 05 - 04:56 PM Micca, "Here are 4 that sound like they might be quite nice things," - IN WHAT UNIVERSE??!!. "Ochlerotatus taeniorhynchus" - some things just roll off the tongue. This sounds like a nice Irish 'scat'. Oh, it was in the month of May ochlerotatus taeniorhynchus It was in the month of May Aedes egypti and all It was in the month of may, When to the swamp I made my way Ochlerotatus taeniorhynchus, Aedes egypti and all And I was a carefree lass Ochlerotatus taeniorhynchus And I was a carefree lass Aedes egypti and all Oh, I was a carefree lass 'Till a big mosquito bit... enough already (I honestly can't help it.) |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: GUEST,Art Thieme Date: 07 Feb 05 - 08:09 PM Martin Gibson --- both good guitars |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: GUEST,Art Thieme again Date: 07 Feb 05 - 08:15 PM as Peter and Lou Berryman said in a song once: the Belvidere Oasis--- "A lovely name for such a terrible place to go." (It is an overpass on the toll road going N.W. out of Chicago.---Mainly has overpriced meals and unclean restrooms. Art Thieme |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Jim Tailor Date: 07 Feb 05 - 08:18 PM Jeez. You (of all people) hafta ask?! Amorphous silica. ...and if you happen to be afflicted with great glaze formula/no raw material, these extinct chemicals sound loverly... Gerstly Borate Cornwall Stone Albany Slip |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Once Famous Date: 07 Feb 05 - 09:15 PM Fart Theme Long forgotten on Lincoln Avenue. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 07 Feb 05 - 09:28 PM But those aren't nasty, Jim, unless you inhale them. Of course, if you do inhale them you'll die from silicosis which does have a nice ring to it. I don't know about people's names though. McGrath mentioned "Osama" which is a lovely sounding name that has had the misfortune of becoming synonymous with one very nasty individual. But all the Osamas in the world aren't evil. Most of them are probably very nice people. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Teresa Date: 07 Feb 05 - 09:32 PM honey pot, honey dipper, etc.: anything to do with collecting feces. teresa |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Peg Date: 07 Feb 05 - 11:34 PM coprophilia. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: HuwG Date: 08 Feb 05 - 08:56 AM Chrysotile Actinolite Amosite Anthophyllite Crocidolite (invariably referred to by Geol. students as "crocodileite") These are the posh names for various minerals used to manufacture commercial asbestos. Chrysotile is a form of the mineral "serpentine", the rest are amphiboles. Chrysotile was (and still is) the most widely used variety but is decomposed by acid, so Amosite and Crocidolite were also widely used, and are the most dangerous carcinogens of all of them. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: CStrong Date: 08 Feb 05 - 07:05 PM Hey, Martin This is a word game thread. Attacking a nicer-guy-than-you is uncalled-for, and you should apologize. Right damn NOW. |
Subject: RE: BS: Beautiful Names for Nasty Things From: Weasel Books Date: 08 Feb 05 - 07:51 PM The word Putrescine has a vile sound to it. Cunnilingus sounds pleasent and innocous (what Brit comedy was it that they slipped in the phrase 'his cunnilingus on and on?). Unhygienix has an appeal because of that Little Armorican Village. Sanguine. |