In a Post entitled
PET WORDS by Brad Leithauser
on The New Yorker Page Turner of Sept. 13...
he began:
The word “sweet” appears eight hundred and forty times in your complete Shakespeare. Or nearly a thousand times, if you accept close variants (“out-sweeten’d,” “true-sweet,” “sweetheart”).
This level of use comes as no surprise to anyone who loves the sonnets and plays: whether in moments of fondest coaxing and chiding (“When your sweet issue your sweet form should bear”) or abject anguish and empathy (“Bless thy sweet eyes—they bleed”), Shakespeare reliably repaired to a sugared lexicon.
Interesting that he begins the latter paragraph using the word level which he later goes on to cite as one of his personal favorites….
"I love it because it so fittingly embodies its own definition. Could any word possibly look more level than “level”? It’s not merely a palindrome. It’s also all but bilaterally symmetrical—legibly itself if written on a pane of glass and read from the other side. In its perfection, it’s hard to believe it was arrived at through the random evolution of everyday speech and wasn’t an architect or engineer’s construction…"
So with that, here are some that for one reason or another (or the one provided) strike my fancy:
Cascade: I've always had a fondness for waterfalls.
Amorphous: Can't quite put my finger on why I like it.
Beguile: It has a deceptive appeal
Languid: A sexier spin on lazy.
Caprice: Because it sounds like a word made up on impulse
Succulent: When it comes to food, especially fruit, this one word says a lot
Effervescent: Saying it feels good.
Cantilever: Couldn't recall this word the other day, so I'm practicing remembering it.
Coalesce: Maybe it's the implication of harmony.
Quintessential: Words beginning with "Qu" just sound more important
Ephemeral: See Amorphous
Insouciance: I knew I was reading too many British novels.
Mellifluous: Perfect. Could be #1.
Sonorous: Musical descriptors always rate highly.
Think I'll go in search of the derivations of some of the above and leave you with:
Ian Rankin weighing in with a fave...
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