out of curiosity

[aesc]

What is your favorite word of all time, the word that fills you with bizarre, ineffable happiness whenever you get the chance to use or say it?

Mine is 'sloth,' although my favorite not-English word is Old English neorxnawong, which is the word for Paradise (as in, the Garden of Eden). Nay-orx-na-wong! Say it!

I ask this question periodically because I love words and I love it when people talk about them and enjoy them. It makes me happy and it relaxes me.

Back tonight with fic! \o/

Comments

[grammarwoman]

Single word, no, but two phrases will make me smile every time.

Blue-footed boobies, because who doesn't love ridiculously colored birds with silly names, and Troy-bilt Chipper Vac, for no reason I can pinpoint other than the collection of sounds.

Though I do have a fondness for "facetious", both for its meaning and the odd factor that all its vowels are in alphabetical order.

[aesc.livejournal.com]

Blue-footed boobies! They are also quite ridiculous birds :D

[everagaby.livejournal.com]

Perspicacity. Every time I read it in a novel I immediately award bonus points to the author for: a) knowing it exists, and b) fitting it seamlessly into a paragraph. (Neil Gaiman is the only author I've ever read to use it in more than one book. Yet more proof of his awesome)

Tragically my use of it every day usually involves me having to break out the OED and hand it to whoever is staring at me like I just called their mother a baby-eating she beast.

Oh, and the Russian language in general. Although there are a few standouts, including the word sneemat (easier to spell in Cyrillic) that means:
1) To rent an apartment
2) To make a film
3) To hire a hooker

So someone can actually say that they were trying to sneemat a place so they could sneemat a film with that hooker they just sneemated.

And they have a word for slow death or disfigurement as by pecking (typically done by a bird).

[aesc.livejournal.com]

And they have a word for slow death or disfigurement as by pecking (typically done by a bird).

AWESOME! I love words like that, that seem so specific you have to wonder what event or set of events prompted the word coming into use.

[hellpenguin.livejournal.com]

it's like "cleave"! <3

[sheylindria.livejournal.com]

Late to the party as usual, but nevermind.

I love the word lascivious. I just love the way it rolls of the tongue. And the meaning is great too:

inclined to lustfulness; wanton; lewd: a lascivious, girl-chasing old man.
2. arousing sexual desire: lascivious photographs.
3. indicating sexual interest or expressive of lust or lewdness: a lascivious gesture

[aesc.livejournal.com]

Lascivious truly is awesome! Like "salacious," it sounds like what it describes, just the way the word rolls off the tongue. Salacious.

[hellpenguin.livejournal.com]

i love salacious salads.







*snort*

[stella-polaris.livejournal.com]

Um, I don't think I have a favourite word, per se, but I really, really like the English word "blue". It's just so round and solid and it rolls off the tongue. Blue. It's a like a smooth, polished stone.

In Finnish, I love the word "mitä", which means "what". Because the thing is that in colloquial Finnish, it can also be used as a statement. Not officially, of course, it's an intonation thing. Say it dryly and incredulously enough, and it becomes a statement as a response to something really, really weird or stupid. "What."


However, possibly my favourite Finnish word is "pohjantähti", meaning the Northern star. Hence my username :) I love the tempo of the word, and it just sounds really stern and beautiful. Also several older Finnish words, like Aamunkoi, (Lucifer), which basically means the morning dawn.


A lot of Finns seem to think Finnish is an ugly language, but I personally disagree vehemently. Not to mention it's probably the best language ever for sarcasm.

[aesc.livejournal.com]

Because the thing is that in colloquial Finnish, it can also be used as a statement. Not officially, of course, it's an intonation thing. Say it dryly and incredulously enough, and it becomes a statement as a response to something really, really weird or stupid. "What."

Very cool! The closest English comes is "What" pronounced as "whut" (as you'll see in lolspeak sometimes), but it a sort of flatly surprised intonation, as though the speaker is so taken aback by the weirdness/stupidness of what's confronted them that they can't sound surprised or shocked.

[feanna.livejournal.com]

I fell in love with aléatoire (random in Frech) when it was used a lot in a book I read. I just like the way it sounds.
Also néanmoins (nevertheless).
As I never speak Frech (and not very well if I tried) I don't get to use them.

[aesc.livejournal.com]

French is a good language for lovely-sounding words. I read a lot of travel literature, and I could listen to the names of French towns all day long :D

[hellpenguin.livejournal.com]

"Irridescence" just sparkles.

"Masticate" and "undulate" are way too fun to use in public

there are more, when i can think of them...

"articulate" has a crisp sound.
"lilt" is beauty