Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The 100 Most Beautiful words

The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English:
source: www.alphadictionary.com/articles/

 Ailurophile  A cat-lover.
 Assemblage  A gathering.
 Becoming  Attractive.
 Beleaguer  To exhaust with attacks.
 Brood  To think alone.
 Bucolic  In a lovely rural setting.
 Bungalow  A small, cozy cottage.
 Chatoyant  Like a cat's eye.
 Comely  Attractive.
 Conflate  To blend together.
 Cynosure  A focal point of admiration.
 Dalliance  A brief love affair.
 Demesne  Dominion, territory.
 Demure  Shy and reserved.
 Denouement  The resolution of a mystery.
 Desuetude  Disuse.
 Desultory  Slow, sluggish.
 Diaphanous  Filmy.
 Dissemble  Deceive.
 Dulcet  Sweet, sugary.
 Ebullience  Bubbling enthusiasm.
 Effervescent  Bubbly.
 Efflorescence  Flowering, blooming.
 Elision  Dropping a sound or syllable in a word.
 Elixir  A good potion.
 Eloquence  Beauty and persuasion in speech.
 Embrocation  Rubbing on a lotion.
 Emollient  A softener.
 Ephemeral  Short-lived.
 Epiphany  A sudden revelation.
 Erstwhile  At one time, for a time.
 Ethereal  Gaseous, invisible but detectable.
 Evanescent  Vanishing quickly, lasting a very short time.
 Evocative  Suggestive.
 Fetching  Pretty.
 Felicity  Pleasantness.
 Forbearance  Withholding response to provocation.
 Fugacious  Fleeting.
 Furtive  Shifty, sneaky.
 Gambol  To skip or leap about joyfully.
 Glamour  Beauty.
 Gossamer  The finest piece of thread, a spider's silk
 Halcyon  Happy, sunny, care-free.
 Harbinger  Messenger with news of the future.
 Imbrication  Overlapping and forming a regular pattern.
 Imbroglio  An altercation or complicated situation.
 Imbue  To infuse, instill.
 Incipient  Beginning, in an early stage.
 Ineffable  Unutterable, inexpressible.
 Ingénue  A naïve young woman.
 Inglenook  A cozy nook by the hearth.
 Insouciance  Blithe nonchalance.
 Inure  To become jaded.
 Labyrinthine  Twisting and turning.
 Lagniappe  A special kind of gift.
 Lagoon  A small gulf or inlet.
 Languor  Listlessness, inactivity.
 Lassitude  Weariness, listlessness.
 Leisure  Free time.
 Lilt  To move musically or lively.
 Lissome  Slender and graceful.
 Lithe  Slender and flexible.
 Love  Deep affection.
 Mellifluous  Sweet sounding.
 Moiety  One of two equal parts.
 Mondegreen  A slip of the ear.
 Murmurous  Murmuring.
 Nemesis  An unconquerable archenemy.
 Offing  The sea between the horizon and the offshore.
 Onomatopoeia  A word that sounds like its meaning.
 Opulent  Lush, luxuriant.
 Palimpsest  A manuscript written over earlier ones.
 Panacea  A solution for all problems
 Panoply  A complete set.
 Pastiche  An art work combining materials from various sources.
 Penumbra  A half-shadow.
 Petrichor  The smell of earth after rain.
 Plethora  A large quantity.
 Propinquity  An inclination.
 Pyrrhic  Successful with heavy losses.
 Quintessential  Most essential.
 Ratatouille  A spicy French stew.
 Ravel  To knit or unknit.
 Redolent  Fragrant.
 Riparian  By the bank of a stream.
 Ripple  A very small wave.
 Scintilla  A spark or very small thing.
 Sempiternal  Eternal.
 Seraglio  Rich, luxurious oriental palace or harem.
 Serendipity  Finding something nice while looking for something else.
 Summery  Light, delicate or warm and sunny.
 Sumptuous  Lush, luxurious.
 Surreptitious  Secretive, sneaky.
 Susquehanna  A river in Pennsylvania.
 Susurrous  Whispering, hissing.
 Talisman  A good luck charm.
 Tintinnabulation  Tinkling.
 Umbrella  Protection from sun or rain.
 Untoward  Unseemly, inappropriate.
 Vestigial  In trace amounts.
 Wafture  Waving.
 Wherewithal  The means.
 Woebegone  Sorrowful, downcast.

A remark: at least 16 of these words are Greek!
Two of them (  Ailurophile,  Petrichor) have a Greek etymology, but they are are not used in modern (nor ancient ) Greek. They have been manufactured rather recently in English, based on Greek words.
Moreover, 3 words from the rest (MurmurousUmbrella) have a distant Greek origin.
The word  Susurrous is present in modern Greek, but its origin is not Greek (it's Latin)

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