Here is a discussion about "favorite words." I can't think of one that I like more than others. Can you?

Interesting, Proof. Some are real common (wistful. Others aren't in proper dictionaries: hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian. But of these, I guess I'd have to say kerfuffle wins. I've always loved that word.

I see that epicaricacy was surprisingly missing.

My favourites have fewer than five letters and are pre-1066.

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My favourites have fewer than five letters and are pre-1066.

I imagine most have only four letters?

So Geoffrey, "favourites?" Is that how you always spell it? It reminds me of z who used to say "in hospital" or "at university." Perhaps we're all England Wannabes.

1. Serendipity. From: Serendip (Ceylon/Sri Lanka) Never been there, though.

2. Saanich. (A city in British Columbia.) Never been there either.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
So Geoffrey, "favourites?" Is that how you always spell it?

That was meant as ironic humo(u)r. Nobody understood, alas. As for which of the four humo(u)rs, I leave it to you to discern.

Mine are
Hunker
Spelt
Found

Those are your favorite words? Found? Tell us why.

Well those are just a few. 'Favorite words' - words taken out of contsxt - for me are like art objects: suggestive of images, having echoes of other words & meanings - in short, words that make me feel like using them in a poem. 'Hunker' used to be great that way, surprising also, due to rare use. By end-20thc. every poet worth salt had used it at least once. I like 'spelt' because of its oddness & possible punniness (wheat, 'spelled'), possible rhymes, & general attraction to short words with closed endings for poetry. I love 'found' because it has those qualities while also possessing rich meaning & echoes of other suggestive words like sound/ soundings, zounds, bound, round, pound etc - they all suggest depth or shape or direction.

"Found" is also found in foundries. IIRC, it's also a British near synonym to Lousiana creole, "lagniappe." Ah, now there's a sweetly-disposed word! Not a mean meaning in it!

Well, that makes sense, Bethree, and really gives me another way to look at favorite words.

Our kids' high school holds a musical every year called "Lagniappe" If you click that link and the the "Learn about New Trier's Lagniappe-Potpourri 70 plus year tradition" you see that it started as "Lagniappe," then in the 70s seemed to have morphed to "Potpourri" and then to "Lagniappe-Potpourri."

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

What happened between 1971-1972? Did the school staff decide they didn't like Louisiana creole and opted for a proper French word? Maybe "mélange" next year?

"There are anticlimaxes; but the reader forgives them indulgently; he is well enough nourished, all the more so since there is all that wonderful assonant humor and derision in mid-panel: indeed, not infrequently the true climaxes come in the penultimate panel, and the rest is lagniappe."

from William F Buckley's introduction to "Doonesbury's Greatest Hits"

Ah, yes, Buckley. I used to watch him on PBS when he had his show on it years ago. I owe much of my vocabulary to him.

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I owe much of my vocabulary to him.

As do I to Jimmy Durante.

You knew Mrs Calabash? Where was she?

I assume she's pushing up daisies somewhere.

As you know, there were often debates between Noam Chomsky and William F. Buckley. Here is a short clip of Chomsky's thoughts on the death of Buckley. He was really quite honest ( E.g., "Some think he was witty, not me of course..."). However, I was intrigued with his thoughts about the real meaning of "conservatism." Geoff, I believe he agrees with you on that. At any rate, he said by today's standards Buckley was really quite moderate.