Thursday, December 13, 2012

What Are Your Favorite Words?

Do you have a list of favorite words? Words that you love just because of their sound or they way they look on the page? Here's my list, compiled over the years:

Floor
Split
Splendid
Parallelogram
Queue
Sluice
Quintessential

Yes, only seven words have made THE list so far. Maybe you can help me expand it? Please share your favorite words with me in the comments. I can't wait to hear them!

25 comments:

Faith E. Hough said...

Quintessential is one of my favorites, too!
Here are a few more:
dwindle
tintinnabulation
caress

Vijaya said...

Oh, my goodness gracious, I have a list of hundreds of words scrawled into my notebook:

raccoon, prism, joie de vivre, hullaballoo, sparkle, trapeze, fox ...

I love quintessential and tintinnabulation! And this is why I love Cincinnati as well ... one of my stories is set there just because, it's such a fun word.

I'd best stop otherwise this would become a very long comment.

Jaye Robin Brown said...

I've always liked plethora, cacophony, lush, widget, and sprocket is an excellent word.

Ann Herrick said...

flamboyant, slither, fiddlesticks

Barbara Watson said...

Tiptoe. It holds so many possibilities.

Marcia said...

Faith -- Tintinnabulation is indeed cool!

Vijaya -- Oh, I know, we could go hogwild. Then I figure the list wouldn't mean anything, so I've tried to keep it manageable. I like Cincinnati, too, and Tennessee and Mississippi for their spellings. My own hometown has that kind of spelling. For years, the kids and cheerleaders actually cheered the spelling at HS sports events.

Jaye -- Oh, those are ALL cool!

Ann -- We'll have to write a story with all these.

Barbara -- Yes, and has a wonderful quality of sneakiness. :)

janet said...

Let's see, I never really thought about it before. Some I like are: traipse, whisper, hush, oblige, fidget

Mirka Breen said...

Hullabaloo*, topsy-turvy, plop, zoom, drizzle, splash, galumph, Thump….
I think I may have a case of onomatopoeia-love. Y’think?

* Wouldn't be complete without overlap with Vijaya

Anonymous said...

I like defenestration, sibilant, and susurrus.

Marcia said...

Janet -- Yes, there's something about those "idget" words, like "fidget" and Jaye's "widget." Must be why I've always rather liked the name Bridget.

Mirka -- Onomatopoeia, absolutely!

Medeia -- Ooh, these are different. Especially like susurrus.

Ruth Schiffmann said...

Love this post, Marcia! I once wrote a short story about a woman who was distracted by her fascination with words.
Here are some of my favorites:
bioluminescence, pitter-patter, mezzanine.

cleemckenzie said...

Quizzical and quixotic always tickle my tongue. I also love sluice.

Marcia said...

Ruth -- I'd love to read that story! And bioluminescence rocks.

Lee -- I really like 'Q' words in general, too.

Janet Johnson said...

What a fun post! scintilate is fun. Rostrum. Oxymoron. Words are just fun! :)

Angela Ackerman said...

I love the words steep, rustle, hone, lotus, sage. Very fun post!

Marcia said...

Janet -- Scintillate IS fun. I'm noticing that almost all of my favorite words have 'L' in them.

Angela -- Nice list. I really think "steep" and "lotus" are fun to say.

Anonymous said...

Fyodor
paleontology
Happersett (proper name)
welkin

Marcia said...

Anne -- I've never heard of the last two. Welkin, though, reminds me of bodkin, a word I like to say because of the dk.

Joyce Moyer Hostetter said...

I think I have a writing deadline (for critique) with you today. Does it still count if it comes in at 11:59?

Deadline is not one of my favorite words.

But I do love hunky dory, galoshes,exuberant,infintessimal, and a lot more that don't come quickly to mind.

Joyce Moyer Hostetter said...

litigation, conundrum, daffodils

Cynthia Chapman Willis said...

Hmmm, I don't have a list, but I do like the words hilarious, lovely, and lush.

Marcia said...

Joyce -- Yes, it still counts at 11:59! Go, Joyce go! LOL about deadline. All writers have favorite words, don't they?

Cynthia -- Ooh, lush is a goodie.

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

I think I use the word lovely a lot in real life and in my current novel (that's almost ready for round 2 of betas. I think it sounds very English.

Nora MacFarlane said...

I like:
chocolate, cacophony, will-o-the-wisp, opalescent, lustrous, delirium, particular..

Anything with lots of consonants and syllables is fun to say!

Unknown said...

My favorite word is serendipity. I think this site can be helpful: favoritewords.com, I am new to it but I believe it has a great potential to move forward in the future as a new wave in social networking.