These are the 100 most beautiful words in the English language, apparently.
Ailurophile
A cat-lover.
Assemblage
A gathering.
Becoming
Attractive.
Beleaguer
To exhaust with attacks.
Brood
To think alone.
Bucolic
In a lovely rural setting.
Bungalow
A small, cozy cottage.
Chatoyant
Like a cat’s eye.
Comely
Attractive.
Conflate
To blend together.
Cynosure
A focal point of admiration.
Dalliance
A brief love affair.
Demesne
Dominion, territory.
Demure
Shy and reserved.
Denouement
The resolution of a mystery.
Desuetude
Disuse.
Desultory
Slow, sluggish.
Diaphanous
Filmy.
Dissemble
Deceive.
Dulcet Sweet, sugary.
Ebullience
Bubbling enthusiasm.
Effervescent
Bubbly.
Efflorescence
Flowering, blooming.
Elision
Dropping a sound or syllable in a word.
Elixir
A good potion.
Eloquence
Beauty and persuasion in speech.
Embrocation
Rubbing on a lotion.
Emollient
A softener.
Ephemeral
Short-lived.
Epiphany
A sudden revelation.
Erstwhile
At one time, for a time.
Ethereal
Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
Evanescent
Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
Evocative
Suggestive.
Fetching
Pretty.
Felicity
Pleasantness.
Forbearance
Withholding response to provocation.
Fugacious
Fleeting.
Furtive
Shifty, sneaky.
Gambol
To skip or leap about joyfully.
Glamour
Beauty.
Gossamer
The finest piece of thread, a spider’s silk.
Halcyon
Happy, sunny, care-free.
Harbinger
Messenger with news of the future.
Imbrication
Overlapping and forming a regular pattern.
Imbroglio
An altercation or complicated situation.
Imbue
To infuse, instill.
Incipient
Beginning, in an early stage.
Ineffable
Unutterable, inexpressible.
Ingénue
A naïve young woman.
Inglenook
A cozy nook by the hearth.
Insouciance
Blithe nonchalance.
Inure
To become jaded.
Labyrinthine
Twisting and turning.
Lagniappe
A special kind of gift.
Lagoon
A small gulf or inlet.
Languor
Listlessness, inactivity.
Lassitude
Weariness, listlessness.
Leisure
Free time.
Lilt
To move musically or lively.
Lissome
Slender and graceful.
Lithe
Slender and flexible.
Love
Deep affection.
Mellifluous
Sweet sounding.
Moiety
One of two equal parts.
Mondegreen
A slip of the ear.
Murmurous
Murmuring.
Nemesis
An unconquerable archenemy.
Offing
The sea between the horizon and the offshore.
Onomatopoeia
A word that sounds like its meaning.
Opulent
Lush, luxuriant.
Palimpsest
A manuscript written over earlier ones.
Panacea
A solution for all problems
Panoply
A complete set.
Pastiche
An art work combining materials from various sources.
Penumbra
A half-shadow.
Petrichor
The smell of earth after rain.
Plethora
A large quantity.
Propinquity
An inclination.
Pyrrhic
Successful with heavy losses.
Quintessential
Most essential.
Ratatouille
A spicy French stew.
Ravel
To knit or unknit.
Redolent
Fragrant.
Riparian
By the bank of a stream.
Ripple
A very small wave.
Scintilla
A spark or very small thing.
Sempiternal
Eternal.
Seraglio
Rich, luxurious oriental palace or harem.
Serendipity
Finding something nice while looking for something else.
Summery
Light, delicate or warm and sunny.
Sumptuous
Lush, luxurious.
Surreptitious
Secretive, sneaky.
Susquehanna
A river in Pennsylvania.
Susurrous
Whispering, hissing.
Talisman
A good luck charm.
Tintinnabulation
Tinkling.
Umbrella
Protection from sun or rain.
Untoward
Unseemly, inappropriate.
Vestigial
In trace amounts.
Wafture
Waving.
Wherewithal
The means.
Woebegone
Sorrowful, downcast.
Showing posts with label word choice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label word choice. Show all posts
Friday, April 8, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
grr. style.
"'Are you a college man?' he enquired suddenly." p. 109
I'm not sure why it bothers me so much that they use "enquire" instead of "inquire". It really shouldn't. It's the same exact word. same meaning. (I just checked dictionary.com to be sure - don't wanna be lookin' like a fool). They use the word a lot. I'm sure it's just a style thing. Fitzgerald also uses "realises" instead of "realizes". if it were a British novel, I'd be a little more understanding. but it's American lit... it might be to appeal more to a higher level of society in some sense. but this is supposed to represent America, no? how can that be accomplished fully if atypical spellings are used? hm?
meh. sorry. badmood. not a good time to blog. hah. yaaay, time constraints!
I'm not sure why it bothers me so much that they use "enquire" instead of "inquire". It really shouldn't. It's the same exact word. same meaning. (I just checked dictionary.com to be sure - don't wanna be lookin' like a fool). They use the word a lot. I'm sure it's just a style thing. Fitzgerald also uses "realises" instead of "realizes". if it were a British novel, I'd be a little more understanding. but it's American lit... it might be to appeal more to a higher level of society in some sense. but this is supposed to represent America, no? how can that be accomplished fully if atypical spellings are used? hm?
meh. sorry. badmood. not a good time to blog. hah. yaaay, time constraints!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
here's lookin' atcha, kid.
"Let's go to Coney Island, old sport. In my car."
why not use "kid", or "bud", or just plain ol' "sport". this is my rant blog. it has no real relevance. but I don't like that Gatsby uses "old sport" at the end of nearly every sentence addressed to Nick. I'm hoping that there's some profound meaning behind it. I'm sure there's not. it reminds me of those people, usually girls, who randomly throw the word "like" in the middle of sentences. I counted during the Death/Raisin SocSem for some people. in a single comment, a few of the girls got up to 20+ "like" uses that were not necessary or proper. the "y'know"s and "I mean"s are getting bad too. I know I say "I mean" a lot though. hm... I'll work on that. but really, Gatsby? can't you give me a little bit of variety here? I'm dying. I can't stand when people call other people "sport". It really bothers me. I'm sure you can understand how "old sport" is even worse. ugh.
why not use "kid", or "bud", or just plain ol' "sport". this is my rant blog. it has no real relevance. but I don't like that Gatsby uses "old sport" at the end of nearly every sentence addressed to Nick. I'm hoping that there's some profound meaning behind it. I'm sure there's not. it reminds me of those people, usually girls, who randomly throw the word "like" in the middle of sentences. I counted during the Death/Raisin SocSem for some people. in a single comment, a few of the girls got up to 20+ "like" uses that were not necessary or proper. the "y'know"s and "I mean"s are getting bad too. I know I say "I mean" a lot though. hm... I'll work on that. but really, Gatsby? can't you give me a little bit of variety here? I'm dying. I can't stand when people call other people "sport". It really bothers me. I'm sure you can understand how "old sport" is even worse. ugh.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
I hate stories that start with "Once Upon A Time"
I really do.
I really really love the satire and sarcasm used in this story. I absolutely LOVE the passive-aggressive "I don't think I ought to do anything, too. that's so me...
the author is asked to write a children's story. because she "ought" to. so, she writes a story. it has a child IN it. it begins with "Once upon a time there was a perfect family blahblahblah..." and ends with "...and they all lived happily ever after", so it MUST be a children's story, right? and it has a moral too, right? I mean, the more you try to prevent something, the more likely it is to happen, or something like that.... I want to say it's Murphy's Law, but that's slightly different, I think.
and again we get the infamous word choice making everything oh-so-much-more pleasant. at the end of the story, the boy gets attacked by razor wire. but does he die? let's find out... they carry "it". yup. he's dead alright. just a corpse, a measly "it" now.
I really really love the satire and sarcasm used in this story. I absolutely LOVE the passive-aggressive "I don't think I ought to do anything, too. that's so me...
the author is asked to write a children's story. because she "ought" to. so, she writes a story. it has a child IN it. it begins with "Once upon a time there was a perfect family blahblahblah..." and ends with "...and they all lived happily ever after", so it MUST be a children's story, right? and it has a moral too, right? I mean, the more you try to prevent something, the more likely it is to happen, or something like that.... I want to say it's Murphy's Law, but that's slightly different, I think.
and again we get the infamous word choice making everything oh-so-much-more pleasant. at the end of the story, the boy gets attacked by razor wire. but does he die? let's find out... they carry "it". yup. he's dead alright. just a corpse, a measly "it" now.
"Eveline" makes me think of Ben Folds
because he has a song "Emaline". completely unrelated. ohwell.
anyway, this is in response to the first(?) question in the book about this story. it asked why the first paragraph was structured the way it was. the word "invades" was used instead of something else. why was everything in passive voice except for the first paragraph?
the "invades" thing I picked up pretty quickly: no one can control night. it just happens and the darkness that it brings seeps into every crack. using the word "invades" rather than a more pleasant word preps the reader in a way for the unpleasantness that is in this story.
until I really looked into why "invades" was used, I couldn't figure out the purpose of using passive voice. (being a yearbook nerd, I find very little use for it in most circumstances. other than laziness, of course). but! I had an epiphany.. as I was explaining to my small group that "invades" is used because it can't be controlled, I realized that the author used passive voice for similar reasons. passive voice suggests that something happens, but not actively. the person doing the action does not choose to do the action, necessarily. there's a lack of DOING replaced by simply BEING... the passive voice foreshadows the lack of control and action that Eveline exercises in the story, a-HA!
anyway, this is in response to the first(?) question in the book about this story. it asked why the first paragraph was structured the way it was. the word "invades" was used instead of something else. why was everything in passive voice except for the first paragraph?
the "invades" thing I picked up pretty quickly: no one can control night. it just happens and the darkness that it brings seeps into every crack. using the word "invades" rather than a more pleasant word preps the reader in a way for the unpleasantness that is in this story.
until I really looked into why "invades" was used, I couldn't figure out the purpose of using passive voice. (being a yearbook nerd, I find very little use for it in most circumstances. other than laziness, of course). but! I had an epiphany.. as I was explaining to my small group that "invades" is used because it can't be controlled, I realized that the author used passive voice for similar reasons. passive voice suggests that something happens, but not actively. the person doing the action does not choose to do the action, necessarily. there's a lack of DOING replaced by simply BEING... the passive voice foreshadows the lack of control and action that Eveline exercises in the story, a-HA!
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