Naming question

[shorty116]

Hey guys, i'm looking for a business name. Part of the name should be the word "peculiar". I found this word says a lot of what i want to tell the people, it's a synonym for "distinctive, appropriate, special, unique" but Thesaurus also gives me some negative correlations like "bizarre or odd". As i'm not an english native speaker i wanted to ask you (native speakers) if you see the word more positve or more negative?

[hanratty21]

Depends on the kind of business. If you are serving food, it might be a negative. If you are selling unique trinkets it could be good.

[silverx2]

make up a new word. like pecutasticuliar

[Loyal Rogue]

Definitely has more of a negative connotation in everyday English language use in America.
I don't know about other English speaking countries.

Why not use "unique" or "distinctive" or one of the other synonyms?

[jAQUAN]

"peculiar" as a word inspires curiosity in which case I like it for general writing. As a business name it's perhaps too syllable heavy for good alliteration which is key to successful branding.

[Genesis F5]

I'm with jAQUAN on the writing part. I don't know if it's the accent or what, but there's more of an inquisitive quality to the word if I imagine Sherlock Holmes saying it, but as Hanratty and LR noted, in everyday English, it's generally negative.

Now, if this was thousands of years ago and you just invented the pickle, a play on words for your new invention would be positive, like "The Picklulier Cucumber."

[shorty116]

so "pecutasticuliar" it is, then.

thanks for your input

[Nogol]

*sneaks off to buy www.pecutasticuliar.com*

[jAQUAN]

Unless you're selling prosthetic testicles I'd advice against it.

[argonauta]

"peculiar testicles" sounds like an awesome name for a business

[ctranter]

"charmingly odd"

[Frets]

Quirky

[joshstrike]

Sounds kinda queer to me.

Seriously though, did queer stop being a synonym for peculiar in the last few years, in the same way gay stopped meaning lighthearted? How exactly did that happen? Is it just that once it becomes accepted mainstream pride-shorthand for light-in-the-loafers, no one wants to use it anymore in another context for fear of people thinking they're gay? Should SNOOTs bother to reclaim these words? When I was a kid I remember this kids' book wherein the main character, who was some kind of female detective child genius I think, used to always describe clues she came across as "queer". I can't remember what it was called. But now if you started a detective agency called "Queer Clues", for example, the only job you'd be hired for would be to follow Mark Foley to the bathroom.

[shorty116]

Unless you're selling prosthetic testicles I'd advice against it.

you did see the smiley, didn't you?

[Flashock]

Thepeculiar

[gerbick]

The Peculiar Plate... I could see that working.

[silverx2]

Sounds kinda queer to me.

Seriously though, did queer stop being a synonym for peculiar in the last few years, in the same way gay stopped meaning lighthearted? How exactly did that happen? Is it just that once it becomes accepted mainstream pride-shorthand for light-in-the-loafers, no one wants to use it anymore in another context for fear of people thinking they're gay? Should SNOOTs bother to reclaim these words? When I was a kid I remember this kids' book wherein the main character, who was some kind of female detective child genius I think, used to always describe clues she came across as "queer". I can't remember what it was called. But now if you started a detective agency called "Queer Clues", for example, the only job you'd be hired for would be to follow Mark Foley to the bathroom.

1.)

2.) dont google little girl female detective with children present

3.) right around the time Fag stopped referring to cigarettes.