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.)
December 23, 2010
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I nominate tomosynthesis. It's a lovely word.
Celadon.
They all sound French to me.
whiskey
Manure.
It's "Ma", which is good, and "newer" which is also good. Manure.
'erstwhile' depends entirely on whether you have a rhotic accent or not. It's a pretty horrible sounding word for those of us with.
Noel is a seasonal word that means " now wellness has come".
"Susquehanna: A river in Pennsylvania"
Proper nouns should not be allowed.
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.
Swish.
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.
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.
"Pyrrhic" is on the list? That's not a pretty word to anyone who knows what it means!
Brouhaha is a fun word (but more fun than beautiful).
James...I always like Philatelist. That is the DADT word among stamp collectors.
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.
traditional guy:
I used to collect stamps.
But not philately.
(ducking)
Actually, "click" probably comes from the German "Klick," "klicken/klickern."
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."
I like that some of the english words are direct borrows from french. Ratatouille, for example.
I am partial to "salamander", which is why it's my name.
Is "fluorescent" in there?
wv: "broupe" -- probably not on the list. Sounds like a belch.
The most beautiful phrase: You were right.
callipygous
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.
Peter Hoh...you were right.
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.
thank You for the list.... A few words I want to use in some of my stories. There is also a challenge for usage.
Swaddlng (clothes).
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!
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.
"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.
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?
Salient
and it's antonym:
Reentrant
To me these terms have always been so visual, lyrical.
Salients and reentrants, (for those who thought they were computer programming terms).
"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.
I always thought "paid in full" on my mortgage were the most beautiful words in the English language. To each his own, I guess.
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.
Fellatio
It just rolls off the tongue.
Professor Althouse used to be a supporter of President Clinton, but unlike Monica, not fellately.
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.
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.
"fluorescent" ??
Shame on you.
Incandescent.
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
I'm fond of "onomatopoeia" because it's useful both as a word and as a sentence.
Serendipity wins but only because I thought propinquity was a lock.
Not a word, but a phrase, after nearly 50 years, "I do" is still beautiful.
Emollient sounds fatty.
I like my words crisp.
Saying "emollient" feels like eating a hunk of milk chocolate. Except that there's no chocolate taste. Unsatisfying.
The three most pleasing words in the English language are cellar door soup.
No word sounds more like what it means than "peon"
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.
Tucumcari, a city in New Mexico. (Pronounced just like
2 come carry)
Ungoliant
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