What's Your Favourite Word?
April 4th 2008 00:27
Language is my love, my indefatigable companion, my soul mate.
But language is the arrangement – the sometimes majestic, lyrical, and occasionally genius arrangement - of its lesser parts. Words.
So what's your favourite word?
I was reading last night and came across the word ‘snifter’, as in ‘brandy snifter’. How good is the word ‘snifter’? – evocative and sensory with a hint of promise. It makes me think of academic offices and shelves full of literary classics.
As I ruminated on the fabulousness of the word ‘snifter’ I remembered an amazing documentary screened on the ABC last year called Derek Tastes Of Earwax. This documentary looked at the fascinating condition known as synesthesia – an intermingling of the senses.
Synasthetes (people with the condition) may see words or sounds as specific colours. Some people taste words before they even speak them.
Erica Goode, writing for The New York Times in 1999, gave the example of a study of synasthetes.
“ One participant tasted tuna fish when the word castanets was on the tip of her tongue. She also experienced the taste of tuna fish when the actual word was spoken.”
A similar article written for UPI in 2006 said that the synathete's word-tastes represented “complex food experiences (e.g., salad with Caesar dressing; lightly buttered toast; the vanilla cream you get inside donuts) and some are brand-specific (e.g., Heinz tomato soup) (but) some tastes can be rather unpleasant, as for example, with the small number of words that trigger the taste of 'organic inedibles' (e.g., earwax).”
The ABC TV Guide blurb says that, “the phenomenon has now attracted Professor VS Ramachandran, one of the world's leading neurologists, based at the University of California, San Diego."
"He has identified possible cross-linkages in the sensory areas of the brain as the probable cause of the condition. It seems that babies are born entirely synesthetic and only learn to separate their senses after several months."
"Ramachandran has come up with the 'synesthetic boot-strapping theory', in which he says that the first sounds of human language were possible because of links between the auditory and visual regions of our brains.”
It’s this 'synesthetic boot-strapping theory of language origins' that has me interested.
This guy says it better than me Really Long Link
It’s a pretty complex (although fascinating) scientific theory but, for me, the upshot of it is that a great number of words (and maybe language itself) may have their origins in synasthesia.
It may be one of the reasons why I get a sensory effect from words like ‘snifter’.
One anecdote that does the synasethesia rounds is about Vladimir Nabokov as a young child informing his mother that the painted colors on his wooden alphabet blocks were "all wrong." She understood immediately, Nabokov recalled, because she, too, saw each letter in a distinctive hue. Apparently it has a genetic tendency as well.
'Snifter' is not really my favourite word (if it's possible to have just one) but today I really like it.
Tomorrow it will probably be 'bellicose'!
What are your favourite words?
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Comment by Joanne Fedler
Some of my favourite words:
Petticoat
Windowsill
Numinous
Festoon
Bamboozle
There are so many... these are some. They play hopscotch on my tongue.
Jo
Comment by Jayne Kearney
Writers In Writing (and other writing)
My faves change daily - festoon is great.
Caramel is another great word - for obvious reasons.
Your food writing in Secret Mother's Business was very evocative. I don't think I am a synasthete but I definitely have a sensory response to language and images.
Jayne
Comment by AmyHuang
Project Job Search
Travel Debate
Travel String
Love Adventures
Just the simple 'hi'
Comment by Jayne Kearney
Writers In Writing (and other writing)
Comment by postmoderncritic
Postmodern Critic
Daily Inspirations
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
You mention one of my favourite words in your post - fabulous.
I also like elusive, illuminate, flow, fluent, exquisite, intricate, charming and way too many others to note here!
Btw, Amy, Did you know that 'Hi' in Japanese contains the 'Hi' sound? It's Ohaiyoo. (Pronounced o-HI-o, like the US state, only the first sound is not an 'oh').
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
thanks for the post, this was really quite interesting, as was everyones responses
Comment by Jayne Kearney
Writers In Writing (and other writing)
I actually love the word postmodern!
Fluent is great but how about effluent!
I use fabulous way too much and am on the hunt for an interchangeable partner for it.
Morgan,
Diabolical is such a strong word, there is no chance of ambiguity when it's used.
Steely is an interesting choice - as in 'steely blue eyes"?
I always say an advertiser's most stimulating phrase is ice cold or icy cold. 'Ice cold coca-cola' makes me thirsty every time. And 'ice cold beer' has to be one of the most seductive phrases in the English language (and I don't even drink beer!)
Thanks for stopping by guys,
Jayne
Comment by Morgan Bell
Science News
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
Comment by postmoderncritic
Postmodern Critic
Daily Inspirations
Relativity Watch
Padsoc
I just read all your posts and I've learnt a new word from the experience - epistolary! I'll be sure to come back here, as I love to see writer characters myself, and discussing them is frequently illuminating.
Comment by Jayne Kearney
Writers In Writing (and other writing)
I love when I learn a new word that I can really use.
I will pop over and check out your-quite prolific by the look -sites.
Jayne
Comment by Lisa the Knight
Why you ask? Well it is a word I like to use but for some reason cannot quite pronounce it correctly so the instant this word pops into my head and I get excited about using it.
Even though I know I will screw it up and I will be left feeling......
yes you guessed it.......vulnerable.
It then makes me more determined to use it again.
Comment by Jayne Kearney
Writers In Writing (and other writing)
How funny! Vulnerable is definitely a word which is laden with meaning. Good to see you are perservering in defeating your vulnerability about its pronunciation.
When I was little I couldn't pronounce squirrel. I know there are words I can't pronounce now but none are coming to mind.
Good Idea for a future post I think.
Thanks for stopping by.
Jayne