Beautiful Words

A post at the Reader’s Digest: The 30 Most Beautiful Words in the English Language

Splendid! I’m right there for this! Tell, me, what ARE the thirty most beautiful — no, let’s not be that demanding — thirty beautiful words, whether or not they are the MOST beautiful.

I definitely have favorites, most of which aren’t going to appear here because they’re jargon rather than “real words.” I mean, like

Ovoviviparous

Which is a great word, a lovely word, all those v’s just roll off the tongue, I love this word and all its variants, such as ovoviviparity. But it’s not a real word in the sense of words such as, say,

Vivacious

Which only has two v’s, but is also a nice word, better than average.

For a list of beautiful words, I really think you ought to be picking words which are real words rather than jargon, and also words that aren’t just silly such as

Floccinaucinihilipilification

Which is a real word in a sense, but never actually used except as an example of a long word. Who did use it? Some author, long time ago … Heinlein? … I’m not sure, but I remember one character saying to another something like, “You’re such a floccinaucinihilipilificator,” and of course that’s something that sticks in the mind.

Oh, an author I don’t much like, but whose language skills are thoroughly admirable, is Jack Vance. Who can forget this wonderful bit of dialogue?

“Ah,” said Magnus Ridolph, “you think I dealt with you unfairly. And you brought me to Jexjeka to work in your mines.”
“You got it right mister. I’m a hard man to deal with when I’m crowded.”

“Your unpleasant threats are supererogatory.”

And certainly supererogatory is a great word, though I don’t know if I’d call it beautiful.

All right, so, what are some of the words that are actually picked out of the vast English language by the linked post? Let me take a look …

Sibilance. I disagree. This is a fine word, an onomatopoetic word, but it is not a beautiful word to my ear. Next?

Tranquility. Okay, this time I do agree. That is a beautiful word. Let me skim down the list and pick out a few more I particularly like.

Epiphany. I’m biased because one of my dogs was named Sevenwoods Epiphany. On the other hand, I named her that for a reason. This is a beautiful word.

Quintessence. I do like “q” words. Maybe almost as much as “v” words.

However, overall, the linked post does a good job of demonstrating how personal the perception of beauty is. I wouldn’t pick out most of those words as beautiful. Here are some I might pick:

Effervescent

Incandescent

Celestial

Liminal

Luminous

Vespertine

Yes, I see I do like “v” words. I’m also distracted by meaning to some degree. That’s hard to avoid, although my liking for “ovoviviparous” has nothing to do with its meaning, of course..

Okay, what’s one of your favorite words? Drop ’em in the comments!

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