Words and Connotations

Last week, I worked on content for a Web site that had me thinking about word meanings. Not just their definitions, but also how they sound and their “aura.” For example, “lucid,” which means “mentally sound” doesn’t sound like its meaning. Lucid usually represents a good thing — however, it sounds like a bad thing. People often use “lucid” to refer to an ill patient who becomes aware again.
I believe that “lucid” sounds more negative than positive because of other “-cid” words such as flaccid, acid, and antacid. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but words can look pretty, bland, ugly, and nice based on their spelling, sound, and association with other words.
A sports fan sounds just like that — someone who enjoys viewing and/or watching sports. Change that to a person who is fanatical about sports, and it sounds like a bad thing. Doesn’t it?
Words beginning with “de-” tend to sound negative because “de-” means take away, off, reverse. Decode and decipher aren’t bad things. As I discovered more “de-” words, I thought they wouldn’t work well as a company or site name because they seep into negative territory. Company and site names should feel positive or upbeat — unless of course, the site is about something bad like Web Pages That Suck.