Oooh it’s cruel to put a limit but I see the necessity of it. Okay, here’s my top 5 list, in no particular order since I can’t decide…
Mellifluous
Bubbles (I’ve never quite shaken my childhood fascination with repetitive sounds)
Susurrous
Caricature
Diabolical
I’m sure I’ll change my mind a dozen times but this is what I’ll stick with for the purpose of this posting
Gosh, I have so many. Today I think it’s going to have to be crwth, meaning "a crowd or throng", and a rare word that allows a "w" to be a vowel. Come to think of it, I like throng too, but it doesn’t quite make the favorites list.
I really like facetious as well, since it is, I believe, the only english word using the common vowels once each and in their correct alphabetical order. If you want to add "y", you can say facetiously.
[quote author=PattyC link=board=what;num=1028302181;start=0#4 date=08/03/02 at 15:15:27]Defenestration
Does that happen so often it needs its own word?
I don’t really care, I love it.
The word that is.
I like that word, too. If I had my way, I’d be able to do it to all of the people who pop into my office during the day to ask stupid questions. The fact that my window opening is slightly smaller than the average adult would only make it that much more satisfying. (Don’t worry, I have a first floor office, so they really wouldn’t get hurt…much.)
[quote author=Jack link=board=what;num=1028302181;start=0#7 date=08/08/02 at 14:08:18]I really feel that I should add the word plethora. I’ve loved that word ever since I saw The Three Amigos.
I have to admit that I’m prejudiced against it. I had an advisor in grad school that told students to use this word in academic articles because it sounded intellectual. My prejudice is due more to his pompous pseudo-intellectualism than the word itself. It is one of those words that feels good in the mouth to say (an important criteria for me).
To facetiously, you may add abstemiously and arseniously. I used to believe that made the set complete, but if w can be a vowel we have a greater challenge!
Incidentally, according to a correspondant inThe Times, (I think) "in English Y is always a vowel except when it is a voiced palatal spirant"
The NYT really has to consult with us more often. The consonant (sound) [y] is not a spirant (like [s], [z], [f], [v], etc.) but rather a voiced palatal glide, which means very short, the tongue gliding past the point of articulation (narrowest point) between vowels rather than stopping.
Crwth really isn’t an English word but rather the Welsh word for "crowd," usually referring to the crowd that is a precusor of the violin. The usual English spelling of "crwth" follows the pronunciation, "crouth." It is an interesting word, however, since few English speakers realize that a "crowd" could be a fiddle.
It is also interesting that the [w] in Welsh functions very much like the [y] in English: another glide that is both consonant and vowel. While the [y] is palatal (narrrowest point is between the tongue and hard palate), the [w] is a bilabial glide, which means it refers to nothing more than briefly rounding (puckering) the lips. When you do that and blow over your vocal cords, you get . In English, therefore, we use "u" for a vocalic [w].
You will find throughout the histories of all languages [w] becoming (and vice versa) and becomeing [y] (and vice versa). (In fact, the [w] is called what? A double U.) Look out for these common changes, e.g. the in "language" (gwij) and the in "companion" (yuhn).
CRWTH is indeed an interesting word, but an infinitely more interesting instrument. NOT rrrreally a fiddle, though played with a bow. Well, one of the more interesting aspects of it is exactly that before the 11th century it seems to have been plucked only, which makes it an important link in the history of the earliest bowed instruments.
I have to log in my favorite: rambunctious -it bounces like a tigger. And ‘ornery’ just sounds like what it means. Here the Scots use ‘kerfuffle’, a kind of elaborate hassle, and best of all, ‘blethering’, a sort of babbling about not much. If someone here calls you ‘couthy’, that’s good - it means you are warm and friendly.
