Just some tangential play again today….
At one point in his old volume “Mazes For the Mind,” Clifford Pickover mentions this list of “20 favorite English words” that Bertrand Russell put forth in 1958 (I've put in alphabetical order):
alabaster
alembic
apocalyptic
astrolabe
begrime
chorasmean
chrysoprase
diapason
diapason
ecstasy
fulminate
golden
heath
incarnadine
ineluctable
inspissated
pilgrim
quagmire
sublunary
terraqueous
wind
...sure, try using some of those at your next cocktail party!
...sure, try using some of those at your next cocktail party!
Dr. Pickover follows this up by giving his own oddball list of favorite words (more than half of which don’t even pass my spellchecker test!), as follows:
adipocere
agapemone
batrachomyomachia
batrachophagous
chryselephantine
demilune
eburnian
empyreal
enchiridion
erubescent
ferruginous
gerontocracy
hyperborean
kakistocracy
mamelon
mundungus
ochreous
scordatura
Xanthian marbles
Yggdrasill
Anyway, come on people, normally when I see a list of "favorite" words it’s tied up with some idea of pleasant or beautifully-sounding words (there are a lot of such lists on the internet). What are Bertrand and Cliff thinking! So I came up with my own favorite list, although it is admittedly influenced by the meanings/imagery of the words as well as the sound:
amethyst
effervescent
epiphany
equanimity
ethereal
evanescent
gossamer
lissome
mellifluous
mellow
panache
plethora
saffron
sassafras
scintillating
sensual
serendipity
synchronicity
whimsy
wistful
Now THAT's a good list! ;)
Doesn’t have much to do with math, though I think it could be interesting to analyze any such-list from an individual (might need a bigger sample than 20 though) and try to find a (perhaps phonemic) formula that would predict what other words that person might like (including foreign words), or even invent nonsense words they would favor the sound of based upon the formula; perhaps just a wistful idea or passing whimsy on my part; or, do you find it scintillating? ;) …and what are some of your own favorite words?
[If you get stuck for ideas this long Quora thread gives LOTS of individual 10-word lists from posters -- interesting, both which words get repeated, and how many different choices there are!]
[There are also, by the way, interesting internet lists of people's least favorite sounding words.]
[If you get stuck for ideas this long Quora thread gives LOTS of individual 10-word lists from posters -- interesting, both which words get repeated, and how many different choices there are!]
[There are also, by the way, interesting internet lists of people's least favorite sounding words.]
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