I have long had a love affair with the English language. I admit to a bit of provincialism in the matter since, as far as other languages go, I know only some rudimentary Spanish and only a smattering of words in a half-dozen other languages. But English's loose structure, compounded by its flexibility and its easy adaptation of the features of other languages, is just so much fun. Besides, as they say, in what other language can your nose run while your feet smell?
I particularly like certain words. I'm never sure what quite attracts me to a word. It's not necessarily the meaning of the word: indeed, one of my favorite words is "fistula," which is a somewhat disturbing medical phenomenon but has a wonderful sound. To my ear, anyway.
Some of my other favorite words, in no particular order, include:
Other than that I tend to like words ending in "ous," which I'm pretty sure is Greek, I don't see much pattern there. But I could go on--in fact I had to stop myself.Apocryphal Apoplectic Aplomb Astrophysicist Axiom Bailiwick Bodacious Bombastic Cantankerous Cloture Dreck Dyspeptic Euphonious Expository Fount Fulminate Fungible Gastronomic Genteel Gall Joist Lambast Mandibular Mendacious Nymph Obsequious Ontology Orthodox Phalange Phantasm Philogynist Polymorphic Praetorian Prognosis Provenance Pustule Queer Ruminate Smote Supernumerary Sycophant Tendrils Tortuous Unctuous Unguent Vivacious Zeitgeist Zephyr
Am I the only one who's freakish enough to enjoy just sitting down and reading a dictionary?
I'm with you on cantankerous. It's so perfect for its meaning, it's practically an onomatopoeia. I like indefatigable, myself. And gaol, when it's spelled that way.
Concupiscent. Awww, yeah.
I always liked fungible! There was a discussion of that word at Acidman's a while back.
I have to say, I don't really like the English language. It's so confusing: there are two words for most meanings. Take, for example, the already 'one-off' meaning 'to make different:' differentiate and diversify. 'Color made via the combination of blue and yellow:' green, and verdant. Can you imagine how difficult that must be to learn as an ESL student? It's a nightmare, riddled with exceptions, and many different dialects, as well as two sets of spellings, neither of which have a whole lot of bearing on the actual pronounciation (case in point: pronounciation, and the whole '-tion' suffix). It is, however, if you decide to relax about the whole thing, as you have obviously and enviably done, a really interesting language because of all of those issues.
Surely you did not mean to omit "curmudgeon"? You're nearly ready for it.
So, Kit, STFU and learn Esperanto...
Incarnadine-- which I believe was also one of Bertrand Russell's favorite words.
Also Occident.
Berm.
"Comprise."
Because everyone else I read these days misuses it. I guess I must be the only man in the world who grew up on Strunk's "Elements of Style:, wherein, many decades ago, I saw:
"Comprise, as in 'The zoo comprises the animals', NOT 'the animals comprise the zoo.'
Instead of this simple bit of grammatical logic, I contnually read pretzels such as:
"The zoo is comprised of emus, armadillos, monkeys and ignorant writers."
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Love words.
Favorite: Aesthetic
Reading the dictionary is a GREAT way to pass the time.
No such list would be complete without "phlegm". It's the best example of the spelling of a word conveying its full effect. Phlegm just wouldn't be the same if it was "flim", ya know?
I have a weakness for the somewhat archaic terms, like 'Ragamuffin' (of course, it helps when a word is used in 'The Simpsons'). This sure is a fun thread, you little ragamuffins you. Pullulate is another one of my favourites; I was quite disappointed to discover that it does not, in fact, mean something dirty.
Dean:
"Some of my other favorite words, in no particular order, include:
Apocryphal
Apoplectic
[snip]
Zeitgeist
Zephyr"
Quite a coincidence then, that the words came out in alphabetical order. :-)
I love 'pedantic.' Its origin, sound. Seems it came from the idea to wear your status like a pendant around your neck. I love that. Discovered it while in a very boring philosophy class with a teacher who told us how we 'should' be thinking. Was looking up words. Just lovely.
I love the English language too; though if I were learning it as a second language, I would hate it.
It's just such an easygoing language. Imagine what the French Academy (or whatever it's called) would have done to Lewis Carroll if he'd written the Jaberwocky in French. But we Anglophones just started using the words in daily language.
Heh. Bill got me. I did alphabetize my list. I should have said, "in no particular order of preference."
In response to those who say that English as a second language is/would be maddening:
I think you guys are wrong. Having discussed this with a number of people who speak English as a second language here in the United States, I've found that most of them agree that English is actually pretty easygoing and flexible. Since English doesn't much care about inflexion and tone (except to convey emotion), all manner of accents and pronunciations are tolerated with aplomb, and we'll even put up with a bit of odd-sounding word order without a lot of difficulty.
Indeed, my experience is that most English speakers find the accents of people who grew up speaking Polish, German, Russian, various Indian dialects, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, etc. interesting. We may tease people with such accents a little bit, but mostly we find them charming.
No, what's maddening for the English-As-Second-Language folks is our spelling. Our spelling drives them nuts, and is easily the worst feature of the language by far.
A point on which I am wholly sympathetic, even if I love the quirks of the English spelling system.
"The definition of a dull person is one who can go to the dictionary, look up one word, and walk away."
I am a language-lover too ... as well as a dictionary-reader.
I think my favorite word to say is: "elixir".
It just feels good : Elixir, elixir.
I love "Phantasm" too.
It's not the meaning of the words, exactly, like Dean said, but the way they sound.
Evensong. I love that word.
Twilight
Deliberate
Shun
Frosty
Perhaps
Pedantic
Didactic
Solvent
Lovely words, all.
Oh, and I totally agree with "cantankerous".
I'm not sure what words I love, but I know that I absolutely hate the word moist. Argh!
I have to agree with Claire. I almost always looked at other words while I was there, and I sometimes do so at dictionary.com as well, looking at related words and synonyms and making word trails from page to page.
I started reading the dictionary for fun when I was 12 and bored one summer. I then used what I learned to torture my younger brother! Still do, whenever I can.
Favorite words:
truculent
superfluous
What's your take on the Jacobean English, the type of English we see in the King James Bible?
I'm in love with the language, the depths and widths of majestic richness reaching out towards eternity, musick to the ears, beauty to the eyes, and warmth to the soul. The linguistic heart of Jacobean English beats strongly but gently, its rhythm soothing and healthy, wonderful and marvelous. :-)
I've tried! :-)
however, please try and be civil. I was respectful of others' comments, and I ask only the same respect.
"Jabberwocky" in French and a lot of other languages here:
http://www76.pair.com/keithlim/jabberwocky/translations/index.html
truculent
superfluous
Fabulous words. Simply fabulous.
God I love this language!
"Mellifluous" Sweet as the "honey" from which it is derived.
Dean: (re: English as a second language)
You're right insofar as people who come here and have to learn English will pick it up... but I can't imagine coming from a Spanish background and trying to spell in English. I think simplified spelling schemes are unimplementable, but wow -- I've had lots of trouble trying to pronounce words that I'd only ever seen written down. The hidden curse of loving to read.
I must first give H.L. Mencken credit for three quite entertaining words: omnibibulous, ecdysiast, and Comstockery. He was a writer who so thoroughly enjoyed the English language that he wrote eight books on it. He certainly wrote more entertainingly than possibly any other curmudgeon.
Interesting oddities appearing in Standard English such as palindromes entertain me as well. Malayalam, redivider, kinnik-kinnik are all fun words. Ululate is an interesting word borrowed from the Middle East with many applications as the phrase whirling dervish.
I like words with PIZAZZ! You know, the words that have FLAIR and ZEST. ZANY words make speaking and reading so ______ (need a good one here) . . .
I also like the word, "fortuitous"
Does anyone have a favorite word that would be a nice name for a baby girl (no traditional first names)? My 16 month old is Summer, and I'd like to find a word (not a common name) for our bun in the oven in case it's a girl.
I like
ectoplasmic
limpid
ennui
lucid
luminous
softshoeshuffler (but maybe that should be two words, eh?)
I would have to say that my favorite word is evanescence. For some reason, it rolls off the tongue easily, and has a very mysterious meaning.