Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Francophilia and Guardian's 100 Most Beautiful Words List

Guardian's list of 100 beautiful words (below) has been kicked about on facebook lately. Most of the words on this list are of French or Latin origin. Fewer than 10% are of Germanic origins. Strange, telling - a thousand years since the Battle of Hastings and English speakers still associate all things bright and beautiful (a French word) with French. Me, I like my English gritty and Germanic.

Ailurophile Assemblage Becoming Beleaguer Brood Bucolic Bungalow Chatoyant Comely Conflate Cynosure Dalliance Demesne Demure Denouement Desuetude Desultory Diaphanous Dissemble Dulcet Ebullience Effervescent Efflorescence Elision Elixir Eloquence Embrocation Emollient Ephemeral Epiphany Erstwhile Ethereal Evanescent Evocative Fetching Felicity Forbearance Fugacious Furtive Gambol Glamour Gossamer Halcyon Harbinger Imbrication Imbroglio Imbue Incipient Ineffable Ingénue Inglenook Insouciance Inure Labyrinthine Lagniappe Lagoon Languor Lassitude Leisure Lilt Lissome Lithe Love Mellifluous Moiety Mondegreen Murmurous Nemesis Offing Onomatopoeia Opulent Palimpsest Panacea Panoply Pastiche Penumbra Petrichor Plethora Propinquity Pyrrhic Quintessential Ratatouille Ravel Redolent Riparian Ripple Scintilla Sempiternal Seraglio Serendipity Summery Sumptuous Surreptitious Susquehanna Susurrous Talisman Tintinnabulation Umbrella Untoward Vestigial Wafture Wherewithal Woebegone

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