Question from the stack of blue cards

One of the questions James Lipton always asks his guests on Inside the Actor's Studio is "What is your favorite word?"Apparently Bernard Pivot, who had a prime-time literary interview program at one point, would ask the same question, and was often dissapointed with the answers. Geoffrey Nunberg certainly was in his section of The Way We Talk Now entitled "A Few of My Favorite Words."

The point he makes is that the choice the politician threw out there -- peace -- was a great concept, but not much of a word. He goes on to explain that there is some debate as to how the impression of the sound of a word is colored by meaning. Some he sites are pearl, willow, autumn, and ermine. He also thinks melanoma is a lovely sounding word, "if you want it to be the name of a tropical wind instead of a tumor." (p.21) He also thinks "diarrhea" is a waste of good syllables. (ibid.)

He starts the piece by telling the story of a dentist who builds a giant catapult to hurl a Buick 250 yards into the air. He chose Buick because he liked the sound of the name. He goes on to debate about what his favorite word would be, wavering between parts of speech (preposition athwart, verb bamboozle, adjectives galore and akimbo) and settles at last on lap, "that evanescent body part which no other language has a name for." (p.22)

I have thought long and hard about what my favorite word would be; readers of this blog already know that my favorite French word is pamplemousse. I am a fan of other people's invented words: jedi, wookie, muggle, orc, hobbit. My sister and her husband call their dog (a plotthound [Platthund cognate? (platt meaning low or plain and hund meaning dog, OLG)] whose proper name is Ellie Mae) the barkles. I love my daughter's words for peek-a-boo and lipstick, beedaloo and eyelips respectively. So I don't know if I could pick a favorite word.

But I do know for sure my all time least favorite word, just for the sake of the word, not necessarily the concept: seat. I would rather we talk about chairs and traffic harness belts and toilet comfort lids than ever again use the word seat.