Alison Flood toys cat-like with the 100 most beautiful words over at the Guardian book blog. Now I’m more of a storyteller than a wordsmith, and once appalled a friend by saying that words for me were just a means to end, but even I can see the pleasure in these words. Looking at the full list I’m torn between cynosure (a focal point of admiration) and penumbra (a half shadow, the edge of a shadow). The latter wins out however, both on the aesthetic level, and on meaning.
Now how about the 100 ugliest words. Thuggery? Spitefulness? Bankruptcy? Hmmm….
I have just felt one hundred small shocks of delight.
As an ailurophile, I must adumbrate, that cat is blandiloquent. (And I had no idea “zyzzyva” was a kind of beetle. How cool!)
Technically 110 words! How fun. I’ve always thought “bulger” was a rather icky-sounding word.