My favorite words
I collect words that I find pleasant-sounding or interesting in meaning. Here is a list of them.
By sound
Terms
- Diaphanous
- Eloquent
- Enamour
- Evanescence
- Fleuron
- Heathland
- Illustrious
- Murmur
- Nivkh
- Oscillation
- Pasquinade
- Pavonine
- Resplendent
- Semilunar
- Slavonic
- Telestic
- Tenebrism
- Theogony
Names
- Alexander
- Andrius
- Coriolanus
- Detlev
- Edmund
- Elagabalus
- Ekaterina
- Hadrian
- Maurice
- Montgomery
- Mnemosyne
- Ophelia
- Samuel
- Stanislav
- Theodore
- Tsuyuko
- Vladimir
- Zvonimir
Toponyms
- Circassia
- Edmonton
- Halicarnassus
- Indianapolis
- Kyoto
- Nantucket
- Northumberland
- Srebrenica
- Smolensk
- Thessaloniki
- Thrace
- Windhoek
By meaning
- Lucubrate: to study at night by lamplight, which is very specific and very relatable
- Gravity: I like this one for its versatility and usefulness—referring to power, depth, and significance all at once.
- Sublime: this word really captures the Romantic era, my favorite art period. Sublimeness can't be comprehended with the mind—it's beauty, wonder, or spiritual thrill beyond description. The sublime can seem mysterious or even divine.
- Nostalgia: A lot of people seem to be nostalgic nowadays
- Catharsis: Spiritual release through tears or fits of anguish. Catharsis is like vomiting, but for your soul.
- Wonder: Expresses awe and childlike fascination, but with a touch of mystery.
- Epigone: An inferior imitator of someone else, usually an artist.
- Soul-sick: Other words, like sadness and misery, may be applied to personal plights, such as breakups or poverty. Should their subject escape those issues, they may indeed be quite happy in life. But soul-sickness has more breadth and finality. It describes dissatisfaction with the whole world and how it works; with society, with life, with the human condition. You look upon the world and something unnameable is missing. Though not as piercing as anguish, it is more inherent, deep, and ineluctable.
Foreign terms
- Poshlost (пошлость): A word describing concepts ranging from immorality, perversion, and soullessness to vulgarness and lack of taste. Vladimir Nabokov used this word to describe anything he didn't like.
- Mirabile dictu: Interjection meaning "it is wonderful to say." An expression of joy in a beautiful language -- look at that trilled r, the resplendent a, the elegant contrast between the vowels of dictu. Truly mirabile dictu.
- Taedium vitae: Boredom of life.
- Cher ami: Nothing special -- simply 'dear friend' in French. I use it for close friends who do not find it too ridiculous.
Page created March 7, 2024. Last updated August 19, 2024