Beautiful Words

[Paul Whybrow]

This article, listing the 70 most beautiful words in the English language could be useful, if you applied the words wisely—in your book title or synopsis, for example.

These Are the 70 Most Beautiful Words in English, According to a Survey

I'm surprised at two omissions, words that I like and which I've seen authors mention as their favourites when interviewed—tintinnabulation, for the sound of a bell ringing—and susurration, meaning a whispering sound made by people, waves on a beach or wind through leaves.

I guess, that for most writers, two of the most beautiful words appear when they type The End...except that they're followed by one of the most terrifying of words—Editing!

Do you have any favourite words that didn't make the list?

Amazon.co.uk: Ann Patchett: Books, Biography, Blogs, Audiobooks, Kindle

 

[RK Wallis]

Ah, shoot, I love 'sparkle' ... but it didn't make it!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Arrival, blue, bird, cloud, dark, evening, kick, sky, star, sapphire, sea, lull, rain, waterfall, river, silver, otter,

Kiss.

LATIN Da mihi osculum.
French Embrasse moi
Italian Dammi un bacio
Spanish Dame un beso
German Kuss mich (sorry, no umlalt)

Give me a kiss. Is that less lovely sounding? So many, many, musically beautiful words....

 

[Rich.]

Wonder, numinous and liminal – all words used frequently by serious fantasy fans.

Spanish Dame un beso

Well, if we're doing Spanish, I'm quite partial to the breathy...

hug : abrazo [a-brAth-o]

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Hehe....yep; very breathy. And I daresay I have set myself up for all sorts here, but I don't care and I'm not budging. Spanish sounds beautiful of course. But so does English. It is not a clunky, ugly language. It gets an unfair rap IMO. It is unusually broad as a language, maybe uniquely broad, reflecting the massively broad history for such a small place. And agile, mercurial, a hybrid of Romance and Germanic. I wouldn't say German is hard on the ear either. And Arabic is musical and gives us so many wonderful names of the stars.

 

[Rich.]

Spanish sounds... well... when I arrived here twelve years ago knowing only a few words of Spanish, I spent the first few months thinking everyone was arguing. It's a language for lively conversation and no mistake!

As for English and all it's bastard beauty, I agree with you – it gets an unfair rap. Start and begin with their Germanic roots, and initiate and commence with theirs in the Latin. In Spanish we're stuck with the last two, and they both end in arrrrrrrr.

 

[Deleted member 604]

It it just me on this, okay, Matilda moment coming up - 'Onomatopoeia' - I think that's a beautiful word.
Okay, now "I can be your hero baby..." By Enrique Iglesias is in my head with all this talk of breathiness.
Thanks guys and girls, LOL, Thanks

 

[Katie-Ellen]

@Rich. said re Spain: 'I spent the first few months thinking everyone was arguing.'

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....me beauties. My first visit to Italy, Sorrento...people flinging their hands about. It was a policeman arguing with a man and a woman, all shouting and flinging their hands about. Then the policeman gave his hands a final fling and walked away.

 

[Rich.]

That's exactly it! (Except in Spain the flinging is more in the shoulders -- champion shruggers.)

 

[Eva Ulian]

@Rich. said re Spain: 'I spent the first few months thinking everyone was arguing.'

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....me beauties. My first visit to Italy, Sorrento...people flinging their hands about. It was a policeman arguing with a man and a woman, all shouting and flinging their hands about. Then the policeman gave his hands a final fling and walked away.

I agree Katie, Italians are not only verbally but also physically expressive. Being almost bi-lingual (I speak English better than Italian), I have taken on a lot of the physical expressiveness of Italians and which is unconsciously transferred to when I speak English... I make all kinds of facial movements even when saying something as serious as "To be or not to be..." And I simply go to town with... "I wondered lonely as a cloud, that floats on high o'er vales and hills; when all at once, I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils."

But... I believe, there is no language in the world, no matter how romantic and musical as some Latin languages are, that can beat English. English has to sound right, pleasant, poetical, even at the cost of bending grammar rules, because if it doesn't, it's not "English". And whatever English lacks in music or romance, (which I don't think it does) makes up in being the language of clarity, depth, philosophy, and all that encompass not only the human intellect, but also the human heart.

 

[Steve C]

Congratulations always signifies something joyous
Beer and whiskey are not bad either

 

[Deleted member 604]

A well-chilled Peroni for me

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Whiskey = Gaelic, I think. Uisge, water (of life.) Whisky in a Jar. Nancy Whiskey. The word has a pretty sound to it.