2006.08.11
In forested paludal basins
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What are your favorite and least favorite words? Any reasons why?
I’ve never really thought about this in an organized way, but give me a word that sounds beautiful, looks beautiful, and has an intriguing & memorable definition, and I’m hooked.
To wit (and with help from answers.com):
synaesthesia
syn·aes·the·sia (sĭn’ĭs-thē’zhə)
n.
- A condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when the hearing of a sound produces the visualization of a color.
- A sensation felt in one part of the body as a result of stimulus applied to another, as in referred pain.
- The description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another
palimpsest
pal·imp·sest (păl’ĭmp-sĕst’)
n.
- A manuscript, typically of papyrus or parchment, that has been written on more than once, with the earlier writing incompletely erased and often legible.
- An object, place, or area that reflects its history: “Spaniards in the sixteenth century … saw an ocean moving south … through a palimpsest of bayous and distributary streams in forested paludal basins” (John McPhee).
I really don’t have any least favorites… If it was worth turning into a word, it’s probably worth being a word, if for no other reason than posterity.