Not many
people regard pulchritude as one of the most beautiful words in English. The
word itself means beauty, but sounds like a witch in a Roald Dahl story. Some
people make lists of their most pulchritudinous words. The first ten words in a
British Council survey of the fifty most pulchritudinous runs mother, passion,
smile, love, eternity, fantastic, destiny, freedom, liberty, tranquillity. Tellingly,
father misses out. These words were chosen for meaning rather than
mellifluousness. Mellifluous words show further down: serendipity, lullaby, cosmopolitan,
bumblebee… No. 50 is kangaroo. What are yours? My mellifluous list starts mellifluous,
February, emerald, lorikeet…
No comments:
Post a Comment