I just tried to read an essay in the New York Times that cited the words “cellar door” as the most beautiful phrase in the English Language. HUH? Normally I enjoy lists of “beautiful words” but this threw me. Cellar door doesn’t do anything for me, in sound or meaning. It actually makes me feel a little tense, since I automatically presume that something bad exists behind a cellar door, like a maniac or a dead animal.
I screwed around on google and found this list of “The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English.” Take a look! I was surprised by how many I disagree with. Usually lists of beautiful words are big on euphonious words like shimmer, iridescent, and lullaby, but this list is all over the place.
It includes “plethora” which I hate, and “inglenook,” which I think is the name of a cheap wine, but I’m not sure. I misread “fetching” as “felching,” which was a momentary shock that has ruined “fetching” for me, at least for tonight.
“Ineffable” is a great word, and so is “imbroglio.” I also like “pungent” and “woodwind” and “melancholy,” none of which made the top 100. On the other hand, it did include “penumbra” which is too reminiscent of “pudenda” for my comfort.
“Halcyon” is a lovely word that made the list, as one might expect. It would be beautiful even if it didn’t evoke a nice tranquilizer. I once told a friend that the drug Halcion made me think of people laying in the grass beside a sun-dappled lake. He replied, “They should have called it Seurat.” I nearly fell in love with him for that, but I was already in a relationship and he was a prick.
What words do you find beautiful? Feel free to list your own 100 if you love that many.
Denouement, ratatouille, seraglio, Susquehanna? And a word I love, ‘aubergine’… Are these words English? I rather like:
jasmine
butterfly
cedar
oak
gold
equanimity
chrysoprase
paradise
jazz
mimosa
rose
– plus many others, including ‘curious’ of course.
Lady Sister.
This will take a fucking while.
But here are a few:
Sparrow
Salacious
Blossom
Sugar Cube
Juice
Poppy
Flicker
Slaughter (if removed well from its meaning)
Glassy
Silver
Silky
Nocturne
Marmelade
Crush
Blackberry
July
The worst word in the world?
(not counting racist fuckhead words?):
Drizzle.
-XuXu
http://www.frenchshelter.blogspot.com
My favourite words are mainly Welsh or French (I deserve to be called a prick for stating this!) but I am rather partial to inglenook which is a corner by a fireplace or chimney particularly when I’m sat in one with a log fire burning after a bracing walk.
I quite like the word astonishment too.
Lots of words about illusion, authority, and nature it seems:
magistrate
perfunctory
coda
nomenclature
viscount
obsidian
messianic
oligarchy
lepidopterology
larceny
voluble
orbicular
traipse
crevice
metallurgy
apiary
rhododendron
nefarious
“Wonderful” is the only word in English that I really hate, mostly because of overuse and how simply ugly it sounds.
Madame Pudenda, fetch us a felch!
Cerulean
sable
tintinnabulation
metaphor
lucid
repugnant
discombobulated
stentorian
cosmos
dulcet
Puchritudinous
cetacean
bounder (sounds better when it comes from Bertie Wooster, I admit)
I like “chrysalis”
and I know it’s not english but my favorite word in the world has to be “pendeja”.
amplify
bastion
cerulean
ebullient
empathy
ennui
ephemeral
inspire
foramen
gracious
gnome
meander
pejorative
perennial
philosophy
poignant
raven
umber
verbosity
viridian
visceral
voluminous
weary
wistful
I am not finished, but I have to go…
Penultimate, squalor and peripatetic are three of my favorite words, but I’m not sure I could use them together in a sentence. Lackadaisical is my least favorite word because it lost me the spelling bee in 4th grade.
I have an all-time favourite, though I don’t know if it’s been used in about a century- blackguard!
Pungent and melancholy are great, Sister. XuXu, I too enjoy the word salacious. And Kate, magistrate is also a favorite of mine. A few that immediately come to mind:
Love:
Emphatic
Caveat
Demur
Comeuppance
Spurious
Affable
Concubine
Pestilence
Hate:
Colossal
Global (when imporperly used, which is all the time)
quatrain
flog
draconian
perpetual
innate (I don’t know why I love this word so much, but I do)
veranda
flagellate
dodge (I love the mind-picture that comes with this word!)
postulate
perspicacious
calamity
eviscerate
HATE:
Human – I don’t know if it’s the word that I hate, or what everyone says when they discuss “humans.” HAAAAAATE.
Wow…I’m seeing a pattern in my words. I think that I need to go and self-analyze now.
Great post. I’m will you on cellar door – maybe I’ve watched too many scary movies.
My favourite word is discombobulate.
Others that spring to mind:
salacious
obstreperous
belligerent
lacivious
delicious
lovely
wonderful
halcyon
bizarre
incredible
How could I forget: cul-de-sac! Such a delightful word for something so pedestrian.
If I could marry a word, it would probably be that one.
I <3 the word 'Possum'. The animal, not so much.
I dislike the word 'but' though I say/write it more than I'd want to.
Plenty is also a good word…
I saw an exhibition in Palais de Tokyo in Paris, literally, exactly two years ago, which was called ” cellar door”, inspired by that statement.
One room was like abandon city scape with hand made trees covered with gun-powder and a full moon hanging above. It was the most beautiful thing.
We planed to visit more shows that fashion week, but instead, we sat on the bench, in Paris rain, smiling.
http://www.palaisdetokyo.com/fo3/low/programme/index.php?page=nav.inc.php&id_eve=1940&session=35
There are some videos on youtube, but they don’t do it justice.
Forgot to mention my favorite word
smrt – means “death” on Serbian. It’s so ugly and hard on tongue, just like death.
Packages. Particularly the meaning.
sonorous
I have many more, but this is what has stuck with me at the moment.
But if we’re going into foreign/dead languages, I also rather like “lacryma christi” even though i’m not religious one bit.
Oh and an unpleasant, but powerful word: moist.
Hmmmm.. is a good one.. I use it a lot.
Rococo
cornucopia
gazebo
fellatio ..as in “This portrait was painted in 1656 by Fellatio..”
redundundent
licentious and lascivious
portabello
spigot
lunatic
There ought to be a Greek God called Herpes.
Nondescript is such a nondescript word.
Translated from the Danish the little indentation under your nose is called a “Snot Trough.”
My favorite surname shared by a Danish writer – Henrik Pontoppidan.
Door just dead ends all the rolling off the tongue interest of cellar. Cellulose has similar merits. So does annihilation, Pleistocene, abulia, velleity, hypotenuse, cloak, and mode.
My favorite English words have been my longtime internet handles: acrasia and ideoplastic.
When poverty leads to begging in the subway with my viola, our band of street musicians will be named Volgivagant.
Off the top of my head I’d add myriad, serpentine, panache, obstreperous, eviscerate, and azure.
My most hated word: bauble.
love
fuck
grandiose
embellish
intoxicate
fantasy
lovely
amazing
awesome – i am so guilty of overusing this word
ecstatic
succumb
gravity
reason
We could do serious self analysis by looking at the words we fancy.
okay fancy that’s another one.
I better never live in England. I will turn into one of those annoying bitches with a fake british accent rather quickly.
On January 23 I sent you my “word cloud” of these very words!
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1573918/100_most_beautiful_words
My favorite 51 words:
http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1574966/51_words
I love language, period. So I’d rather not choose my favorite words in a public forum; all the other words would feel hurt & left out. But I’m especially a big fan of Latin bi/trinomial nomenclature. How can you not love (and be a bit frightened by) Ursus arctos horribilis (grizzly bear) or Canis lupus?
I think to get the “cellar door” thing, you’d have to say it over and over in your head until it loses its meaning and you just hear the sounds. But that might just be me.
Was this a recent issue of the NYT? Because that’s a pretty old idea, actually. As soon as I read the first paragraph of your post I thought of Donnie Darko. Ah, well. Must have been a slow day at the presses.
Oh, and here:
philanderer
reconnaissance
polity
I hate, hate HATE the word “tits,” but the word “breasts” isn’t much prettier.
Ribald.
Sarah Palin.
(Hey, what did I say? Where’s everbody gone …?)
I’m with Mark Twain (I think it was him) who said that the two most beautiful words in the English language were “summer afternoon” – I think that “cellar door” is evocative, but as you said, it could lead down two paths, whereas summer afternoons seem far less likely to contain hidden maniacs.
Great subject, Sister W – it’s why I love you.
Love:
incarnadine
bijou
russet
dogsbody
cascade
sylvan
unguent
suborn
organelle
planchette
axolotl
naiad
pique
feline
cornbread
Hate:
midget
udder
piss
plankton
stump
catamite
pout
Cellar Door: As long as it is a wine cellar, and the door isn’t locked – what’s not to like?
and the one of my family crest: “schadenfreude”
I also like Gore Vidal – although I probably should have put that on your people post. I like the sound of it too. xx
Many wonderful lists here – I need time to read and ponder, and maybe put together my own list. JJ, you made me laugh with “pendeja”. Pendejo is good too – as in “Sting – que pendejo tan grande!”. Ann, you’re right – “global” is misused all the time.
xuxu- READ JIM MOORE’S POETRY! he’s obsessed with the word sparrow!!!
ineffable is one of my favorite words too. i have about 2 poems fixated on it (so ironic.)
i never got the cellar door thing either.
i have about 10 different lists for this question. I wont bother trying to compile them on a friday.
tickets!
best English word ever
In the movie Donnie Darko the English teacher (Drew Barrymore) writes “Cellar Door” on the chalk board as the 2 most beautiful words.
Words I HATE the sound of:
Magician
Fork
Bruce (name, not i word but I hate it)
Masticate
Waft
Spore
Scathe
Visceral
I think Tolkien was right on the money when he said Cellar Door was the most beautiful phrase. Cellar door, cellardoor, celladore, selladore. It could be the name of one of the many beautiful worlds he created.
Also, over here (not sure about in the US) the “Cellar Door” is usually the part of the winery where you go and taste/buy wine. If that’s not beautiful, I don’t know what is.
Great lists everyone! I think when I restart my blog I’ll begin with a “love/hate” word list. A few that I like:
Liminal (Yes, it’s okay without the “sub” prefix)
Diaphanous (it’s the Greek in me)
Susurrus (How leaves talk)
Soliloquy (Love S and L sounds).
I used to like “topiary” but The Shinning ruined it for me.
Cosmos (Love Carl Sagan, and so many wonderful memories being lost in time, on a remote island, watching the heavens spinning above me in the wee hours of the night.)
ciao for now
My favourite word is Halcyon. There is a beautiful brand of teeny tiny hard to source porcelain boxes from a shop in London called Halycyon Days. The are exquisite (another good word). I only own one but I love it.
My 2nd favourite word is stalwart, because it’s funny and I like a stalwart, who doesn’t?
My favourite nonsensical fashion-speak-word is Visionary. As in “That cropped gold party jacket is Visionary Karl”.
According to my taste the most gorgeous sentence would be “A visionary stalwart purchased an exquisite halcyon days box”.
Since this whole discussion started off via two words, I’ll pitch in my two cents’ worth for “scurvy cur”, too.
Fuck, why don’t I like modern language?
Doodad. I love that too.
Feckless. I REALLY love that.
Definitely love “halcyon” and “melancholy” too.
I introduce my husband as my “Lover”. My favorite word ever!
Though possibly the most beautiful words ever when used in conjunction, IMO, are “stone fox”.
becoming (adj.)
archipelago is my hands-down favourite.
poof. Beautifully onomatopoeic, it is.