WORDS: What might you guess is the most hated word in America? It seems that depends on which poll you’re reading.

“Moist” and “whatever” are two of the most hated words overall, according to numerous polls. In office jargon, “synergy” is the most hated word, followed by “teamwork,” stated a poll from Statista.

A Marist poll in 2009 identified “you know, it is what it is,” as particularly annoying, while the top response was “whatever.” Also on the list were “at the end of the day” and “anyway” and “no offense, but…”

Another was “I can’t even” while “ya know, right” and “huge” are loathsome as well.

Some other lists have some words that we aren’t even fond of writing — “amazeballs” and “fur baby” and “bae.”

We must pause to ask, what happened to words like gallivant, flummoxed, kerfuffle, persnickety and ragamuffin?

Or insults from William Shakespeare, where the insult is surely there, but the words are so classy, they dull the sting?

“I’ll beat thee, but I would infect my hands.” — Timon of Athens

“More of your conversation would infect my brain.” — Coriolanus

“The rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril.” — The Merry Wives of Windsor

“Thy tongue outvenoms all the worms of Nile.” — Cymbeline

“He has not so much brain as earwax.” — Troilus and Cressida

Just the list of adjectives used by Shakespeare brings a smile to the face of most wordsmiths — artless, beslubbering, churlish, currish, errant, fawning, froward, goatish, gorbellied, lumpish, mammering, mewling, puny, ruttish, spongy, tottering, venomed, villainous, wayward and yeasty are but a few.

More than 400 years in the future, will someone wax poetic on words such as “amazeballs” and “yeet”?