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Oxford Dictionaries is looking for the worst word in the English language. A few days ago, the language authority posed a question on its blog: “What is your least favorite English word?”
Using its new #OneWorldMap, the language researchers at Oxford Dictionaries were hoping to discover how people’s feelings about icky English words might differ based on age, gender, and country of origin. This is the first of many such questions they want to answer using crowdsourced polls.
Oxford Dictionaries
According to The Guardian, early results showed the word moist in the lead for worst English word in the UK, the U.S., and Australia. New Zealand hates the word phlegm, while the Netherlands hates both war and, surprisingly, love. So jilted! By the time The Guardian’s story went live Wednesday evening, August 24, there had been 8000 responses.
But by midday today, August 25, the poll had already been shut down. “We regret to inform users that due to severe misuse we have had to remove this feature from our website,” the Oxford Dictionaries blog declared. It appears that some users were not pleased that the map didn't allow swearing or offensive entries. One right-wing, Trump-supporting Twitter user complained that you couldn't list Islam as your least favorite word.
We may never know what the world's least favorite word truly is, though it's safe to say that moist is up there. Welcome to the internet, where everything good will eventually be ruined by trolls.
You can still enjoy some of the results by looking back at the hashtag #OneWorldMap on Twitter.
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