My favourite words

I’m taking a break from a bit of a spring clean of my flat (a task akin to paining the Forth Bridge) because I have recalled a conversation with someone a wee while ago about favourite words.  It got me thinking about what my favourite words in the English language are.

I’d love to pretend that it led to a long, verbose and highly intellectual period of self-reflection, from which I whittled down a veritable smorgasbord of wordage into a concise shortlist.  But that would be a lie – I obviously don’t use that many fancy words, because it was really quite easy to think up a top three, and here they are.

And just to add, by favourite, I don’t just mean “most used”, although one of my three is a pretty common word you’ll hear if you talk to me.  They need to have a bit of charm, peculiarity, distinction, and thoughtfulness about them.  These three, I think, have all of those, and I really rather love them.

The first two, however, I rarely get to use in normal conversation, which is disappointing.  Anyway, in no particular order…

1. Ethoi

A few years ago, I was writing a report at work in which I mentioned the ethos of one organisation, and then the ethos of another.  When referring to them both, I compared their… ethoses?  No, that didn’t sound right.  I asked a couple of colleagues, and was greeted with blank faces.

I resorted to Google, and discovered that the plural of “ethos” is the quite magnificent Greek word “ethoi”.

Any word that ends in “oi” is always going to stand out as rather unusual, but it also sounds rather wonderful to say.  “Ethoi”.  It’s soft, easy, and a little quirky to pronounce, and is bound to get folk asking questions if you use it.

2. Heteroradical

A friend some time ago introduced me to the gem that is “heteroradical”.  It’s a fantastic word, which is used to describe a word that contains roots of two different languages.  “Television” is a well-known example of a heteroradical word, combining the Greek word “tele” (far) and the Latin word “visio” (sight).

And with “hetero” being Greek for “different” and “radix” Latin for “root”, it makes the word autological.  Which, quite beautifully, means “heteroradical” is, itself, heteroradical.

3. Stuff

“Stuff” is a good word.  A useful stocking-filler, it can replace pretty much any noun if you’re not sure or motivated enough to identify it.  Like “things”, but sounding nicer, “stuff” can be an answer to more or less any question you’re asked, without sounding too dismissive.  I like “stuff”.  I think I use it a lot.

Anyway, I should go back to cleaning.  In the meantime, what are your favourite words?