Rx Names – The Most Expensive Words on Earth

(Cross-posted at my other blog. Warning: May contain excessive amounts of language geekery.)

My wife and I were watching TV one night when a string of prescription drug ads filled the entire commercial break. I finally noticed something I should have seen before. The vast majority of drug names have three syllables, and many of those have an accent on the second one.

The obvious next question is, why?

It didn’t take me long to find this article, which provides some insight into how the whole process works and some of the linguistic science behind it.

The article doesn’t completely address my question, so here’s my guess for whatever it’s worth. As the article says, two or three syllables make it easier to remember. My theory about the accent on the middle syllable is that it creates an alternating ‘down-up-down’ pattern (for lack of a better term) that feels more poetic than the alternatives. It can stick in your head like a piece of song lyric.

Warning: serious geekery ahead. I just looked this up. This pattern of a stressed syllable surrounded by two unstressed ones is called an amphibrach. The real insight – it’s the primary pattern used in limericks. Makes sense now!

I was particularly fascinated by the article’s discussion of phonemes, which are basically the smallest pronounced units that make up any given word. (like c in car or f in far) I noticed the other day that an inordinate number of words that begin with sl (another example of a phoneme) have unpleasant connotations: slime, slink, slap, slam, slob, sloth, slum, etc.

From the above article:

“Research shows letters with a hard edge, like P, T or K, convey effectiveness. X seems scientific. L, R or S provide a calming or relaxing feel. Z means speed.”

Something to keep in mind next time you write something.

I didn’t do any research into this, but I think the name of a prescription drug has to be the most expensive word you’ll ever pay someone to write. A freelance magazine writer feels ecstatic to get $1/word. The name of a drug, however, goes for a couple million per word.

I’m in the wrong line of work.