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Topic: Most Beautiful Word in English Language
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bunny_foofoo
Keeper of the great CORN
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posted
In the movie Donnie Darko, Drew Barrymore said that a famous linguist once theorized that "Cellar Door" was the most beautiful word in the English Language.
My personal favorite word is "Window Pane".
It feels like such an oxymoron, but in a beautiful way.
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I rather go hunting with Dick Cheney, then go for a drive with Ted Kennedy.
Posts: 1085 | From: South FL | Registered: Jul 2005
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Blackout
Actor Singer Writer Director Visionary Philosopher Magickian Skydiver Digital Hippie and all around Creative Artist
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posted
Umm. Correction. The presence of spaces indicates that those are words and not A word, so they could not be your favorite word, but they could be your favorite words, or phrase.
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You are not your job, your titles, your possessions, your degrees, your lovers, your relationships, your place of residence, your social security number, your ID, your bills, your worries, your bank account, your age or your body. You are the timeless being that created & perceives itself through those things, and you have the power to play or not play that game. When someone asks me "what do you do?" looking for some title to pin me down, I laugh and say "EVERYTHING!" - Blackout
Posts: 7616 | From: New York City | Registered: Jul 2000
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bunny_foofoo
Keeper of the great CORN
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But it is an object. Isn't it a compound word?
Like "Mail Box". Even a word like "baseball" is actually "two words".
A "Window Pane" is a noun, just to words. "Window" does not act as an adjective.
Technically "cedar" is an adjective in "cedar door" because it is used to describe the door. But, I think "Window Pane" stands on it's own as a noun.
No?
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I rather go hunting with Dick Cheney, then go for a drive with Ted Kennedy.
Posts: 1085 | From: South FL | Registered: Jul 2005
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Herbert
Ghostly lover of hats and elephants & Official Blackout's Box Archivist
Member # 628
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quote:
Originally posted by Blackout:
Umm. Correction. The presence of spaces indicates that those are words and not A word, so they could not be your favorite word, but they could be your favorite words, or phrase.
The topic is "Most Beautiful Word in English Language," not "Most Beautiful Words in English Language."
Dictionary.com's definition:
word (wûrd)
n.
1. A sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or of a combination of morphemes.
mor·pheme (môrfm)
n.
A meaningful linguistic unit consisting of a word, such as man, or a word element, such as -ed in walked, that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful parts.
The problem lies in spelling. It's "windowpane" not "window pane." With the space, it inaccurately turnes "window" into an adjective, though it's not. And "cellar door" is not a word, because "cellar" is an adjective for "door."
![[Nerd Guy]](graemlins/nerdman.gif)
Though not my favorite, "longest real word" in the English language to be floccinaucinihilipilification at 29 letters. Defined as the act of estimating as worthless, its usage has been recorded as far back as 1741. In recent times its usage has been recorded in the proceedings of the United States Senate by Senator Jesse Helms, and at the White House by Bill Clinton's press secretary Mike McCurry, albeit sarcastically.
(taken from Wikipedia )
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http://HerbertFilby.com
Posts: 1516 | From: PA | Registered: Sep 2003
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bunny_foofoo
Keeper of the great CORN
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Well then "windowpane" it is.
What about hyphenated words?
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I rather go hunting with Dick Cheney, then go for a drive with Ted Kennedy.
Posts: 1085 | From: South FL | Registered: Jul 2005
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Blackout
Actor Singer Writer Director Visionary Philosopher Magickian Skydiver Digital Hippie and all around Creative Artist
Member # 7
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Wikipedia is evil and run by Satan.
Why support Alvin the chipmunk?
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You are not your job, your titles, your possessions, your degrees, your lovers, your relationships, your place of residence, your social security number, your ID, your bills, your worries, your bank account, your age or your body. You are the timeless being that created & perceives itself through those things, and you have the power to play or not play that game. When someone asks me "what do you do?" looking for some title to pin me down, I laugh and say "EVERYTHING!" - Blackout
Posts: 7616 | From: New York City | Registered: Jul 2000
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Herbert
Ghostly lover of hats and elephants & Official Blackout's Box Archivist
Member # 628
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posted
quote:
Originally posted by bunny_foofoo:
Well then "windowpane" it is.
What about hyphenated words?
I think we could use Maestra right about now. ![[Laugh]](graemlins/laughface.gif)
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http://HerbertFilby.com
Posts: 1516 | From: PA | Registered: Sep 2003
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Maestra
One sexy geek!
Member # 370
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posted
I saw the English teacher signal and here I am to help. Since I only have a week and a half before I have to be a teacher again, I better start thinking like this again. Ugh . . .
Ok, where to begin . . .
Window pane= two words; window is acting as an adjective since there can be several other kinds of panes besides a window pane
Windowpane= one word slang; it is in the OED, but so is bling and muggle
A compound word is a word consisting of two words that could stand on their own. Baseball is a good example; mailbox is also; mail box is not because of the presence of the space.
Hyphenated words are the evolution of two separate words becoming a compound word. As language evolves, the hyphenated word will become one and is treated as one word; examples- mother-in-law, x-ray, anti-inflammatory.
There. That ought to do it. By the way, how is windowpane an oxymoron?
As a side note . . . . One of my favorite words is Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- the fear of long words. I love irony in all its beautiful forms.
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You never know what's going to happen when you give a robot a machine gun.
Posts: 1786 | From: Houston, Texas | Registered: Feb 2003
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bunny_foofoo
Keeper of the great CORN
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quote:
Originally posted by Maestra:
By the way, how is windowpane an oxymoron?
Well, maybe not in a "traditional" sense, but I think "window" I think opportunity, focused vision, opening to the soul...
When I think "pane" I think of it as restricting, confining, prison-like... not to mention it makes me think of "pain".
So "windowpane" to me just feels like an oxymoron to me. But not in a traditional sense like "Parting is such sweet sorrow".
P.S. I like your word. Is that long Marry Poppins word in a dictionary somewhere?
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I rather go hunting with Dick Cheney, then go for a drive with Ted Kennedy.
Posts: 1085 | From: South FL | Registered: Jul 2005
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Equalizer
Box Newbie
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What the @#$%!**!! are you guys talking about?
Posts: 15 | From: Milky Way Galaxy | Registered: Feb 2005
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Bluhevenly
Super Female Sex Crazed Blackout's Box Fan & Donator!
Member # 8
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posted
quote:
Originally posted by bunny_foofoo:
In the movie Donnie Darko, Drew Barrymore said that a famous linguist once theorized that "Cellar Door" was the most beautiful word in the English Language.
My personal favorite word is "Window Pane".
It feels like such an oxymoron, but in a beautiful way.
I won a poetry contest with a poem I wrote called Window Pane. I played on the word "pane" in it.
-blu
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"Dear lady...you are new to the scene. When you have been with us a little longer, nothing will amaze you." --Willy Wonka, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
Posts: 828 | From: North Dakota | Registered: Jul 2002
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bunny_foofoo
Keeper of the great CORN
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Post it here. This is the Writer's Box.
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I rather go hunting with Dick Cheney, then go for a drive with Ted Kennedy.
Posts: 1085 | From: South FL | Registered: Jul 2005
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Maestra
One sexy geek!
Member # 370
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quote:
P.S. I like your word. Is that long Marry Poppins word in a dictionary somewhere?
It should be in the dictionary as well as on Phobia List.com I do a writing lesson where the kids have to pick a phobia (I of course censor the list) and write a funny story. I've had some great ones too. Like the guy who was afraid of the color yellow and accidentally found himself in a raincoat outlet store. Great stuff.
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You never know what's going to happen when you give a robot a machine gun.
Posts: 1786 | From: Houston, Texas | Registered: Feb 2003
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AAARRRGGH
Blackout's Box Master
Member # 439
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I probably should post this in a different thread, but with you all talking about English I thought I might as well just do it here.
Have any of you read a book called 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'? If not, then I seriously recommend it. I'm sure your pupils would absolutely love it Maestra. It comes HIGHLY recommended.
It's about a young boy who suffers from Aspergers syndrome. He wakes up one morning to find his neighbour's dog has been stabbed to death with a garden fork, and decides to work out who did it in the vain of his favourite detective, Sherlock Holmes.
I'm in work right now so I don't have enough time to go into details, but I would seriously rate this book as highly as any book I've ever read. I'd place it above Dickens personally, but then, I think Dickens was (a little) over-rated anyway.
Here's an Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385512104/103-3200309-5164654?v=glance
Posts: 652 | From: England | Registered: Jun 2003
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