Disyembre 23, 2010

"The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English."

Click. Hey, for me, click is one of the most beautiful words. But the words on this list tend to be multisyllabic with aesthetically pleasing sounds: evanescent, efflorescence, effervescent, emollient.

(Via ALOTT5MA.)

55 komento:

Original Mike ayon kay ...

I nominate tomosynthesis. It's a lovely word.

chuck b. ayon kay ...

Celadon.

traditionalguy ayon kay ...

They all sound French to me.

Hoosier Daddy ayon kay ...

whiskey

Lincolntf ayon kay ...

Manure.

It's "Ma", which is good, and "newer" which is also good. Manure.

asdf ayon kay ...

'erstwhile' depends entirely on whether you have a rhotic accent or not. It's a pretty horrible sounding word for those of us with.

traditionalguy ayon kay ...

Noel is a seasonal word that means " now wellness has come".

jayne_cobb ayon kay ...

"Susquehanna: A river in Pennsylvania"


Proper nouns should not be allowed.

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) ayon kay ...

My two perennial favourites are:

ABSTEMIOUSLY

and

FACETIOUSLY

If there are other words in our mother-tongue in which the six vowels appear in order, I'm not aware of them.

English is utterly unique in that it is remarkably easy to learn at a basic functional level. A thousand words of vocabulary along with the few essentials of grammar and you're in business.

Mastery of English, however, eludes us all, including (by his own admission) Churchill. It is my native tongue yet after more than 60 years of speaking it ... there are "miles to go before I sleep."

In contrast, nearly 40 years ago I opted to have a real estate sales contract draughted in French -- I was in Québec after all -- because it was easier to understand than English legal jargon. At that point I could order a beer in French, but little more.

English is a remarkably lovable monster.

Irene ayon kay ...

Swish.

traditionalguy ayon kay ...

Tallulah is such a pleasant sounding native American name that the latest tribes here borrowed it from older tribes here without ever knowing what it means.That phenomenon may be at work in Alaskan Eskimos and their families who often refudiate nonsense.

James Graham ayon kay ...

Shenandoah

One proper noun deserves another.

Cellar door

Yes, I'm cheating.

Epiglottal

I like it because to pronounce it you must use the thing itself.

Clyde ayon kay ...

"Pyrrhic" is on the list? That's not a pretty word to anyone who knows what it means!

HKatz ayon kay ...

Brouhaha is a fun word (but more fun than beautiful).

traditionalguy ayon kay ...

James...I always like Philatelist. That is the DADT word among stamp collectors.

Michelle Dulak Thomson ayon kay ...

I remember a poem from a school textbook (6th grade?) that stuck with me ever since, titled "The Ballad of Beautiful Words." Found it online just now; it's credited to John T. McCutcheon:

Amethyst, airy, drifting, dell,
Oriole, lark, alone,
Columbine, kestrel, temple bell,
Madrigal, calm, condone.

Sovereign, splendor, spandrel, spire,
Sagamore, sylvan, rain,
Heraldry, helmsman, homeward, pyre,
Lavender, primrose, plain.

Dominion, destiny, danger, dare;
Revelry, drone, dragoon,
Tourmaline, treasure, fortune, fair,
Olden, gold, doubloon.

Galleon, gauntlet, garrison, gale,
Admiral, grenadier,
Arena, aroma, armor, ale,
Cardinal, bandolier.

Charity, gloaming, garnering, grain,
Curfew, candle, loam,
Benison, mother, lassie, swain,
Children, evening, home.

James Graham ayon kay ...

traditional guy:

I used to collect stamps.

But not philately.

(ducking)

LordSomber ayon kay ...

Actually, "click" probably comes from the German "Klick," "klicken/klickern."

Michelle Dulak Thomson ayon kay ...

Of course, McCutcheon has only 70 words there, but I'd take that list over Beard's 100 any day. ("Embrocation"? Are you sh*ttin' me?). I am keeping "ailurophile," though. Not because it's a beautiful word, but because it's a ridiculously elaborate way to say "I like cats."

MadisonMan ayon kay ...

I like that some of the english words are direct borrows from french. Ratatouille, for example.

Salamandyr ayon kay ...

I am partial to "salamander", which is why it's my name.

Drew ayon kay ...

Is "fluorescent" in there?



wv: "broupe" -- probably not on the list. Sounds like a belch.

Peter Hoh ayon kay ...

The most beautiful phrase: You were right.

Michael ayon kay ...

callipygous

traditionalguy ayon kay ...

Names can be nice sounding too. The name Ann is one of my favorites. It means "prayer". It has nothing to do with liking Ann of Madison Gables.

traditionalguy ayon kay ...

Peter Hoh...you were right.

madAsHell ayon kay ...

Actually, "click" probably comes from the German "Klick," "klicken/klickern."

Actually, most of the English language is from the German.....and then William the Conqueror showed up, and infused the English language with the French.

This explains the title "attorney general" with the adjective behind the noun....and some other quirks.

john bord ayon kay ...

thank You for the list.... A few words I want to use in some of my stories. There is also a challenge for usage.

kjbe ayon kay ...

Swaddlng (clothes).

Unknown ayon kay ...

They forgot many dear to guys' hearts

buxom

bosom

passionate

sensuous

succulent

and, of course, Ann's fave:

breast

Michael said...

callipygous

Beautiful buttocks - definitely!

ken in tx ayon kay ...

I see bungalow on the list. Bungalow is borrowed word from some Asian language, Hindi or Thai or something like that. It brings back memories. When I was in Thailand in 1972, we had an squadron admin officer, a certain 2Lt W. He met a girl downtown that he wanted to spend some more time with. She said she had no where they could go, so he took her to his room in the Ubon Hotel. It was the fanciest joint in town but he wasn't paying for it, Uncle Sam put him up there. It was about equivalent to a Motel 6 here in the States.

The next morning, the girl felt guilty because she thought he had paid for the most expensive hotel in town just to be with her. She said, “I have confession. I have bungalow.” Meaning she had a place they could have gone at no charge, actually a sweet girl.

Lt. W. jumped out of bed and raced to the base and reported to the dispensary because he had been exposed to the bungalows.

Ann Althouse ayon kay ...

"The name Ann is one of my favorites."

Thanks. To me, it's a ridiculously plain name. Often used as a middle name, as if it's mostly a place keeper.

James ayon kay ...

Lt. W. jumped out of bed and raced to the base and reported to the dispensary because he had been exposed to the bungalows.

Heh....

Is it bad form to question the veracity of this story?

john ayon kay ...

Salient

and it's antonym:

Reentrant

To me these terms have always been so visual, lyrical.

john ayon kay ...

Salients and reentrants, (for those who thought they were computer programming terms).

LordSomber ayon kay ...

"Actually, most of the English language is from the German.....and then William the Conqueror showed up, and infused the English language with the French."

Well, Germanic, technically. German a thousand years ago was a little different than modern day German.

The words beginning in cl- and kl- are giveaways than the word is Germanic or Norse in origin.

sonicfrog ayon kay ...
Naalis ng may-ari ang komentong ito.
Larry J ayon kay ...

I always thought "paid in full" on my mortgage were the most beautiful words in the English language. To each his own, I guess.

sonicfrog ayon kay ...

Harbinger... Incipient... Lilt... Tinny sort of words, don't you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gwXJsWHupg

VerWord: preulap - Sort of PVC sort of word, don't you know.

Ignorance is Bliss ayon kay ...

Fellatio

It just rolls off the tongue.

Ignorance is Bliss ayon kay ...

Professor Althouse used to be a supporter of President Clinton, but unlike Monica, not fellately.

Lucien ayon kay ...

I'm glad someone got "cellar door" into the comments (though without the Donnie Darko hat-tip).

For Dorothy Parker, of course, the top two were "check enclosed" -- which now seems oddly obsolete.

Sorry they missed "ensorcelled" though.

James Graham ayon kay ...

Lucien

I didn't "hat tip" donnie darko because I learned of someone's naming "cellar door" decades before Mr and Mrs Darko got together.

knox ayon kay ...

"fluorescent" ??

Shame on you.

Incandescent.

Hindi-nagpakilala ayon kay ...

Almost meaningless, all those words by themselves. Each an island unto itself? Even the best need words to help them into the garden.

Like midnight, good, and evil to enter: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Bob Ellison ayon kay ...

I'm fond of "onomatopoeia" because it's useful both as a word and as a sentence.

Toad Trend ayon kay ...

Serendipity wins but only because I thought propinquity was a lock.

ErnieG ayon kay ...

Not a word, but a phrase, after nearly 50 years, "I do" is still beautiful.

Freeman Hunt ayon kay ...

Emollient sounds fatty.

I like my words crisp.

Freeman Hunt ayon kay ...

Saying "emollient" feels like eating a hunk of milk chocolate. Except that there's no chocolate taste. Unsatisfying.

Hindi-nagpakilala ayon kay ...

The three most pleasing words in the English language are cellar door soup.

Patrick ayon kay ...

No word sounds more like what it means than "peon"

Stephen ayon kay ...

Many of these words have assonance, which is on my most-beautiful list. However, its inclusion would have made this project the butt of too many jokes.

Rosemary in Utah ayon kay ...

Tucumcari, a city in New Mexico. (Pronounced just like
2 come carry)

Methadras ayon kay ...

Ungoliant

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