Read this whole thread. People are posting their favorite words.
I mean, you just have to love a thread where the word "bumbershoot" comes up.
Now reminder - because this always happens when any "word" thing comes up: This is about favorite WORDS, not favorite CONCEPTS.
It always annoyed me at the Inside the Actors Studio seminars when people were asked in the questionnaire at the end "what is your favorite word" and their answer would be "love". Or "courage". Or whatever. Concepts. These are concepts. The word encompasses the concept, yes, of course. But word??
Your favorite word may be "muck", because you like the sound of it - but you may find that muck itself is kind of a gross thing. One person on the thread I link to says their favorite word is "syphilis" - and then hastens to add: "For the sound of it, not the meaning!"
It was refreshing when Holly Hunter came to do the seminar (on my birthday, as I recall) and she thought about it for a long long time, and then said, "Portentous. I just like saying it. Por-ten-tous."
My kind of chick.
My favorite words?
Elixir
Evensong
Nonsense
Symmetrical
Mash
Bailiwick
Bailiwick. Yum. I love that.
I also like crepescular.
(via Book Slut)
Posted by sheilalevel
because it's the only word I can think of that looks exactly like what it means.
Posted by: Emily at June 29, 2004 1:06 PMI'll go with "scotch"
Posted by: CW at June 29, 2004 1:13 PMScotch. It sure is a level elixir.
Posted by: red at June 29, 2004 1:15 PMThe two words I think are among the most fun to say are: flibbertigibbet and bungalow.
I guess that pretty much makes them my favorite.
Posted by: Jimmie at June 29, 2004 1:30 PMhootch.
Posted by: Dan at June 29, 2004 1:35 PMnookie
Posted by: Mr. Bingley at June 29, 2004 1:42 PMdead
In the sense of denoting an absolute. As in dead certain, dead lame, dead fit, dead tight on the wire. It's a horse racing thing (duuuuuhhh!!!). I've been told it's of Irish origin, but no one seems to know how dead got to mean absolute(ly).
Posted by: michael at June 29, 2004 2:11 PMI find it hard to choose a favorite word in English. Now in Spanish, with the rolled "r's" and the accents I have tons of them.
Posted by: Val Prieto at June 29, 2004 2:11 PM"Oklahoma," as in OklahomaOklahomaOklahomaOklahomaOklahomaOklahoma!
Okay, it helps if you've seen Dirty Rotten Scoundrels one too many times...
He-hee, Mr. Z. "Not mother?" I loved Michael Caine in that movie.
Posted by: Emily at June 29, 2004 2:14 PMI like "barbarism." Also, I want to see the slang term "solid" used as an adverb revived. The word doesn't have so much of a meaning as it is a mere intensifier. Example: someone asks you if you can do something, and you respond, "I solid can!"
Posted by: Bryan at June 29, 2004 2:22 PMCadaver
Posted by: jess at June 29, 2004 3:31 PMThis is like Sophie's Choice but here goes:
Hedonism
Abyssmal
Gesticulate
Conflagration
Posted by: Barry at June 29, 2004 4:11 PMChisenbop!
Posted by: skillzy at June 29, 2004 4:51 PM"telephony"
"octothorpe"
"schwa"
"Vladivostok" (although we should probably leave proper nouns out of this)
I know I have others, but I can't remember them at the moment. I keep thinking of a favorite phrase:
"flux creep": in superconductivity, the phenomena of gradual motion ("creep") of pinned magnetic flux lines past their pinning sites, resulting in a decay of the supercurrent
I also have favorite rhymes, and least-favorite rhymes (rhymes I find cliched, such as "walk":"talk")...
But I digress..
Posted by: Ash at June 29, 2004 5:19 PMOoh. This is just the best site ever.
Mine are:
lollygagging
sluttish
sullied
and, keeping up the theme here:
louche
I think it's time that someone attempts to work all of these words into a paragraph.
I mean: Vladivostok and bungalow ... these words!! Love it!
anyone want to give it a go?
Posted by: red at June 29, 2004 5:38 PMRed - Serendipity Happy word hunting. Terry
Posted by: Terry Reynolds at June 29, 2004 5:40 PMfiggy-dowdy. dragoon. slattern. homunculus.
Posted by: Dan at June 29, 2004 6:39 PMNincompoop, Wombat, and Philanthropist.
Posted by: Alex at June 29, 2004 7:18 PMepiphany
luminescence
electroencephalograph
fantasy
delphinium
And if proper nouns are permitted: Mendelssohn.
Posted by: Lynn S at June 29, 2004 7:51 PMparty people
shiznit
cluster
plethora of course.
clusterfuck (pardon my french)
flipperdinger
janx
all quality words.
Posted by: Jimmy at June 30, 2004 2:29 AMDiaphanous - I like the way it sounds and it also "sounds" to me like what it means
Thwarted - I like the sound of it, the "Thw" combination at the beginning is like a little hammer blow.
Aurora - Just a pretty word for a pretty thing.
Sonnet - Again, it seems an apt description of that which it names. It feels compact and symmetrical.
Nautilus - this may be a situation of liking the concept behind the word; the chambered nautilus is one of the critters that fascinates me, mostly because it follows the "Golden Proportions" in its shell construction
Mincing - again, I like it because it fits what it's describing. And it's fun to say. And it's a good precise word.
Fluff - It has a comforting sound to me.
Posted by: ricki at June 30, 2004 12:15 PMequivical
exorbitant
transmogrify
stigmatize
Squeegee, Bouillabaisse, Bougainvillea, Isthmus, Syzygy, Ethereal, Twerp, Brouhaha, Callipygian, Chrysanthemum, Euthanasia, Flibbertigibbet, Gobbledygook, Juggernaut, Kaleidoscope, Kwashiorkor, Boisterous, Onomatopoeia, & Uxorious; there are just too many good words.
Posted by: Ryan at August 8, 2004 5:09 AM