Dec
23
I have loved the word lugubrious ever since I first heard it in the Disney movie Hercules. (”Coming, your lugubriousness”).
I soon came across it in literature, and to this day to see it in print gives me a feeling of deep pleasure and amusement. Lugubrious…”Mournful; indicating sorrow, often ridiculously or feignedly; doleful; woeful; pitiable; as, a whining tone and alugubrious look.”
What word could be more onomatopoeic?
I love the sound of the long “lagoo” followed by such a noble sounding “brious.” Especially when together the word has such sombre, serious and yet ridiculous sound.
Perhaps I’m just a word nerd, but this is one of my favorites to throw into a conversation and watch peoples eyebrows raise.
Shannon
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Dec
23
Hypaethral
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I stumbled across this word in a book by Mircea Eliade that I was reading at least 30 years ago. I loved the sound and look of it, but hadn’t the vaguest idea what it meant, even after wrestling with the context which often yields a sense of a word strange to me. I looked it up, penciled the meaning in the margin, and promptly forgot about it until a couple days ago when culling old books preparing to move cross country. “Hypaethral” I mused. What a lovely word, how could I have forgotten its sound and sight, much less its meaning: open to the sky; roofless. Yes, my favorite word even though I forgot about it all these years. To be open to the sky ….
Patricia Kelly
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