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Cellar Door: a quest to find the most beautiful word in English
- jareklupinski 2y agoit's soliloquy
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- ArisC 2y agoSome context here: https://logos.substack.com/p/cellar-door https://logos.substack.com/p/cellar-door
- walthamstow 2y agoVery fun and almost addictive. I would like a bit more help though with what is meant by 'beautiful'. Or maybe that's the point, whatever the user infers from that single word is what they're looking for.
- yesbabyyes 2y agoA bit of background: JRR Tolkien developed a linguistic branch he called "phonaesthetics", the study of beauty of words. Many writers have agreed on "cellar door" to be beautiful in terms of the sound of the phrase. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonaesthetics#Cellar_door https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonaesthetics#Cellar_door
- Wistar 2y agoInteresting. I have long thought the word “celerity” to be a beautiful word.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- sparky_z 2y agoI've heard it said (perhaps apocryphally) that when non-English speakers are asked to judge words based purely on aesthetics, the word 'diarrhea' tends to rank quite highly.
- bregma 2y agoTo be fair, it does have a certain flow.
- 082349872349872 2y agoUsing generative Natural Intelligence, an italian wrote a top 40 song that sounded to 1970s non-english speakers as if it had had english lyrics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VsmF9m_Nt8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VsmF9m_Nt8 (compare "abstract comics", "asemic writing")
- mindvirus 2y agoVery interesting, I'd always thought it was a made up thing from Donnie Darko.
- Antonynguyen 2y ago[flagged]
- keiferski 2y agoI don’t remember where I first read it (Google is showing TH Huxley) and it’s two words, not one – but the phrase “mellifluous eloquence” is my answer to this question. As a side note I wonder if this project is addressing the tendency for people to perceive Latin-origin words as being more beautiful or sophisticated, compared to Germanic ones.
- hailpixel 2y agoIn case you missed it, the current leader is `tRNA`: https://www.cellar-door.co.uk/leaderboard https://www.cellar-door.co.uk/leaderboard Which, isn't even a word, but I enjoy the internet doing classic internet things. Edit: It is now `no`. Amazing.
- NoboruWataya 2y agoThe leader is "no", which seems odd. The second one is "trna", which is apparently "a type of RNA that helps in the translation of messenger RNA into proteins by carrying specific amino acids to the ribosome". Is that even a word? Like, do people pronounce it "turna" or something? (Fun game though)
- H8crilA 2y agoYeah the ranking looks completely busted. Unless people actually like those words.
- elpocko 2y agoRanking is manipulated, I just saw "incompetent" quite high up. Now it's gone.
- Xylakant 2y agoThe ranking is quite close at the mid-high ranks. There's 4 points of difference between rank 27 and 100 - high fluctuation without manipulation is entirely expected.
- ArisC 2y agoI think someone hacked my sql table :(
- RhysU 2y ago"inoubliable" if you'll pardon my French. You can't forget this word once you see its definition.