I love words (I know, what a surprise, right?). One of my favorite books as a kid was The Insomniac’s Dictionary, by Paul Hellweg. It lists all sorts of cool lists of words. Like words for collections of animals (a clowder of cats, a parliament of owls, a knot of toads) or lists of the longest words in the dictionary. I must have spent hours reading that book.
I particularly love discovering that a word exists for something I didn’t know had its own word. I’ve always loved the smell that rises up from the damp soil after a summer rain, but it was only a few years ago (courtesy of the fabulous A.Word.A.Day) that I found out there was a word for it: Petrichor.
And then there are the words that are just plain fun to say. Perambulate. Pulchritude. Jackanapes. Banana. Hornswaggle.
And finally there are the beautiful words. I’ve been reading through and loving this list of what are purportedly The 100 Most Beautiful Words in the English Language, which I heard about from writer Alexandra Bracken (her debut fantasy Brightly Woven is due out in Spring 2010 and sounds very cool).
Some of my favorites from the list:
- dulcet
- ethereal
- glamour (but only if spelled with the u!)
- mellifluous
- penumbra
- serendipity
Some I would have cut (they are interesting, but not beautiful, in my opinion):
- encomium
- eschew
- fescue
- fugacioius (then again, I can’t even figure out how to pronounce it — maybe it does sound beautiful if you know the trick!)
- pastiche
I also found a name for a character in my circus book from among the 110 words on that site. Anyone care to guess which it is?
And which words do you folks like best? Are there any particularly cool words you’ve found recently?
Tags: writing
