Distasteful: Just saying it is satisfying: the crisp T’s that bounce on your tongue, the smooth S’s that slide through your teeth, the satisfying ending with “-ful,” as you let your bottom lip flop across your upper teeth.
It is a sadly dejected word; maybe for the better though, because if everyone used it they would know the true meaning behind it. When you tell someone that something is distasteful it sounds so proper that they don’t even realize you are insulting it. Just think about it, if someone were to say, “That was distasteful,” you wouldn’t get all huffy, it would just go over your head.
It is really quite ironic that distasteful should be my favorite word, since the meaning of it is “offensive, unpleasant, or causing dislike.” I find that people really don’t take it like you are saying that what they said or did caused dislike in you, they don’t really comprehend the real, hard meaning behind it. To them, it is simply a beautiful old-fashioned word that not even their grandmothers would have most likely used commonly in their day-to-day life.
It is a very useful word in today’s society however. There are so many instances in a day when one could easily fit the word “distasteful” into their conversation. For instance, when people make crude, sexual jokes, a person could say, “That was distasteful.” The reply would most likely be something along the lines of, “What?” Not to say that people are stupid, or that they wouldn’t know what the word meant, just that it’s a pretty word and people wouldn’t take it as an insult. Now, if, in that example, the person instead said, “That was disgusting,” they would most likely receive a different response.
You see, just society today in general could be labeled distasteful. How, way back when, skirts were used as a way to uphold women’s integrity, but now they are usually a way to do just the opposite- they are a way to make women more attractive to men. Whereas, before, they were elegant, long, and full, now they are sexy, short, and tight. Magazines, as another example, used to be for sharing new scientific discoveries, and relaying news for the betterment of the society; but are now ways of spreading vicious gossip and playing to the naivety of human’s needs through ads. Music was a way of expressing deep emotions from within the inner workings of the soul, and not it is a way of objectifying human beings, and expressing sexual desires using crass, offensive language. Those things are truly distasteful.
It is an under-used, over-needed word.