Four-Letter Words

Growing up in the Midwest, four-letter words were forbidden in my household, at least by kids.  My mom warned that if I said them, she’d wash my mouth out with soap.  I believed her, because she did it one time, not for uttering a four-letter word, but as punishment for “talking back.”

Four-letter words get a bad rap. Here’s how the American Heritage Dictionary defines them:

                  four-let·ter word (fôr ˈletər wərd)

                           n.  Any of several short

                           English words

                           generally regarded

                           as vulgar or obscene.

Sure, there are some nasty ones that I wouldn’t mind having washed away:

                        hate   rape   pain  rude  liar   feud   

                        fake  jail   hurt  sick  fear   kill.

And some are even more obscene with just three letters: 

                                                war.

There’s a simplicity and honesty about short words, though, that I value. Here are a few that I plan to keep in my vocabulary:

        read    book   sing    song   noun  verb  cook  fork  food  bake  cake  feed  note

        card   foot  toes   moon   rain (well, maybe not after weeks of it in the winter)  sail 

        pail   hike  bike  toot   vote   coat   look   like   love  seed   dirt   wool   silk   dock   

        sock  work   soon   tune  bowl   hair   care  fair   pear   milk   kilt   cove  need  help  

        fire  bird  sari  pair  tool  word  work  grin   talk   walk   duck   bead  plum  chum 

        soap   hope   boot   hoot   goat   boat   deer  dear   head  play   pray.

What four-letter words are you happy to use?