Beautiful words

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BEAUTIFUL WORDS

by Alexander McQueen 

(1965 The New Webster Dictionary of the English Language)

Every few years when there is a shortage of news, some enterprising reporter asks a number of prominent men and women to make a list of the ten "most beautiful" words in the language. As might be expected, the nominations include a great diversity of words; no two persons have the same eye or ear for words. Beayty in words is somewhat elusive, but ugliness is easy to regognize. No one would give a beauty prize to scratch, or shredded, or eschew. 

Popular in many lists of beautiful words are mother, love, truth, and  justice, yet all of these have been disallowed on the ground that they are not euphonius. They are beautiful in consept but not in sound. Love may be supremely beautiful in our thougts but not in sound, but as a word it is a mere monosyllable that closes on the unispiring sound of v. The Romance languages are much more fortune in their words for love: Latin and Spanish amor, French amour, and, notably, the flowing Italian amore, ah-mo'reh, which sounds and signs very well.

The word lullaby is great vote getter, partly from its sound but probably also from its association from the slumber of innocent infants. Slumber, by the way, is a popular word.

High on many lists are golden, murmuring, and melody; also glow, noble, and sound. The o sound is always liked. Twilight, home, and romance are favored by many voters, and it will be noticed that two of these words contain the o sound, unstressed in romance but definite in home. (The word home also profits from its sentimental associations.)

Smoothness seems to be the deciding factor in judging verbal beauty. The "good round o" is smooth sounding; perhaps even more so is the oo sound as in moon, coo, and the Irish pet name mavourneen. The 18th-century Emanuel Swedenborg, whose studies in words are unique, pictured the language of heaven as containing many long-vowel sounds, with oo as the most important. The oo sound can be tested in a sort of one-sided conversation with a young baby by gently saying "oo" and then waiting for the infatile response. You may have to wait as long as 15 or 20 seconds, but the reaction is almost sure to come in the for of pleased smile.