Ever since we watched The Interpreter I have been intrigued with the idea of keeping lists, especially the idea of a list of favourite words. Actually, Jonathan and I are big fans of words. While it may sound silly:), we really value language and creativity within it. Of note: favourite...while favorite is a decent word, the British spelling of favourite is much more rich!
So here's to some of our favourite words. For our own records, this will probably be an ongoing list...We'd love to hear your favourites, too. Note: it is a bit hard to think of words on the spot!!
favourite
peculiar
homespun
still...British for noncarbonated
robot...Zambian for stoplight
carriageway...British for highway (isn't that way better than highway!!)
akin
smokepipe...a name to call someone-usually meaning well, or jokingly not well
antithesis
Tanzania...pronounced African Tan-zan-ia
emissaries
bugaboo
ReplyDeletecinnamon
onomatopoeia
textile
zazen
sequoia
Albuquerque
unscrupulous
Inuit
Aboriginal
sangha
Arapaho
Mississippi
jargon
ouija
spork
loo...British for bathroom
queue...British for line
Haleakala...a national park and volcano on Maui in Hawaii
Lahaina...tourist town on Maui in Hawaii
gank...when someone from the opposite faction kills your character in the online game of World of Warcraft
This is the list from Ben and I. This is fun.
You guys have a huge list! Thanks for sharing, guys! You have some beautiful pics on your blog - hope you have fun with it.
ReplyDeleteSo I was thinking more this morning about the word favourite. I was trying to decide why I'm not particularly fond of it since I usually love all things British. It may be that it reminds me of all the extra vowels you encounter in French- a subject I really did poorly in. Spanish, Italian, and Japanese are my preferred foreign languages to try to pronounce. They tend to alternate vowels with consonants. As with the English language I am sure there are exceptions to the rules. This alternating appeals to me since I just stumble over foreign words that are way too long (Scandinavian and Indian languages) or have a lot of vowels (Polynesian languages and French). Yet, I still find that the word favourite looks nice (even though MSWord keeps disagreeing with me and puts a red squiggle under it). Hmm, I think in the end I feel the same way towards it as I do receipt and recipe. Now that was a surprising pair to me.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I spend way too much time considering word choice. :) It must be from writing poetry and constantly writing emails for work to foreign nationals who have varying grasps of the English language.
This subject is way too fun, guys!! Hopefully, you will get more lists.
I was inspired by your blog and started one for Ben and I. Ben still seems a little hesitant, but I think he has a lot to contribute since he is constantly telling people “Oh, you have to check this out…”. As you probably noticed the other day was the first time I read through your whole blog (only one more week of medical leave!) and left a bunch of comments. I too made it my homepage so that I would remember to check it out and comment once I am back to work.
i'd have to say that cheese is a pretty sweet word. some on your list i definently would have to agree with too even smokepipe:)
ReplyDeletewho but lu whould know what to do.
figured i'd try a ryme since it went along with the subject
I would like to honour this peculiar blog posting regarding favourite words with a brief mention of one my favourite colours, which by happenstance is feusia. Actually, I have an affinity for the name of the colour more than the colour itself. Mind the gap as you tarry in the centre of the queue!!
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