Dec
30
Excruciatingly
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Why? I guess it’s because of its sound. Plus, it includes X, which is a rare letter. Also, because of the role-playing game Nobilis, in which the main antagonists are creatures called Excrucians, and those are beautiful and lethal - and they give me the image I see when I say, and hear, the word “excruciatingly.”
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Dec
30
Phenolphthalein
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Phenolphthalein is an indicator used in titrations to determine the strength of acid or alkali solutions. The beauty of this word is if you spell the “p-h-t-h” portion to yourself. If you do it over and over I find it very soothing - give it a try. Also the name Maedhbh (alternative Irish spelling to Maeve, pronounced the same) has the same effect.
Aidan
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Dec
30
Epitome
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No matter how well you know that it is pronounced “e-pit-oh-mee,” when you see it in a book you will always in your head first say “e-pi-tome.” I love this word.
Rebecca
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Dec
30
Gorgeous
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Just speak it aloud, with conviction. It cannot help but define itself, since it starts deep in the throat, rolls upwards with the warm vowel, then fades into satisfied sibilance: a purr resolving into a sigh.
Carol Bland
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Dec
30
Molybdenum
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I’m a chemist… this is an element on the periodic table. I think it has a really nice ring to it yet is kind of awkward to say, all at the same time. Plus, “M” is my favorite letter. moe-leb-dih-num … ahhhh….
Melanie McWilliams
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Dec
30
Farcical
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I use this word a lot when playing Mad Libs! I love the sound of it. I love anything that’s a farce - not in the fraudulent sense, but in the entertaining sense. (A lot of things I say are either farcical or facetious; sometimes it’s hard to know where the boundary is.) It also sounds kinda like “bicycle,” which gives an impression of moving along, traveling, getting someplace at a sedate pace (not too fast, not too slow). I suppose another reason is that it has a “K” sound in it, and funny words supposedly need a K or a P sound. And finally, it’s an unusual enough word to get attention when it’s used - so I use it when I want attention!
Rosemarie Eskes
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Dec
30
Ennui
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I studied French in high school and college, and was delighted to learn that my increasing knowledge of a foreign language also broadened my understanding of English. “Ennui” fascinated me because there was no easy way to translate it into English. The best my teacher could do was add several melancholy adjectives to the word “boredom” and ultimately admit there was no English equivalent. When I learned “ennui,” I realized what a mishmash of fragments stolen from other languages our native tongue is. I also learned how culture and geography shape language. English speakers must not experience ennui — at least to the degree as do the French — and so have no native word for it. (This theory doesn’t hold up when applied to German’s “schadenfreude,” however. We English speakers certainly do take pleasure in other people’s misfortune. I guess we were too busy laughing to give it a name.)
Ryan Miller, San Luis Obispo
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Dec
30
Concatenate
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I like the mouthfeel. It’s mostly used in the techie world; its dictionary meaning is to link together. Like the technical use of the the word “connectivity,” the emphasis is on the ‘aw’ sound in the first syllable. I like that too.
Eileen Q., Minneapolis, MN
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Dec
30
Fisticuffs
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I don’t condone the act of boxing or fighting, so why should it be that this word should be my favorite? I can’t tell you. I have no idea. But I do know that every time I hear it (which is not often) or roll it around in my head, I get a silly smirk on my face that soon turns to glee.
Jason Allan Luiz
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Dec
30
Really, what can be better than a Britishism with only one consonant and a whole slew of silent vowels? Well … maybe a lot of things … but I still really like “queue.”
Amy Lange
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