Although it might be hard to believe, Mr. and Mrs. Ampolo have non-Ampolo occupations, avocations, and hobbies. It’s Mrs. Ampolo here today, and I want to share something I discovered during one of my offline adventures over the weekend.
As author of a mystery series (you can check out my website to learn more about that) where my amateur detective, Jane Wheel, works as an antiques picker/junk dealer, I often do research on the weekends. That research consists of attending garage sales, conducted house sales, etc.—anywhere an abandoned object might offer a story or a bad guy might rummage for a murder weapon.
At this weekend’s sale, I picked up an old dictionary—I can never resist vintage reference books. A 1946 “Modern Webster Dictionary and Word Book” with a disclaimer that it is not related to “Webster’s Dictionary”, published by the Haskin Service, Washington, D.C. it has some delightful features. In addition to the A to Z business of a regular dictionary, it features “new words” entering the mainstream. Boondoggle, Fascism, Jitterbug, Reich, Robot and Wirephoto are a few that show how representative a time capsule vocabulary can be. Also, and even more intriguing, I think, is a section in the back which covers the most beautiful words and the ugliest words. Just the subjective nature of such a section in a reference book is something to ponder and relish.
Here are the words they consider beautiful: Melody, Eloquence, Modesty, Honor, Heaven, Hope, Purity, Splendor, Virtue, Faith, Nobility, Love, Harmony, Adoration, Innocence, Joy, Sympathy, Divine, Happiness.
And the ugliest words of 1946? Jazz, plump, gripe, treachery, sap, cacophony, plutocrat, flatulent, phlegmatic, nasty, victuals, and fetch.
This, of course, begs today’s question. For the Ampolo lexicon of 2008, what words would you include as most beautiful and ugliest in the English language?
For most beautiful, I would vote for peace, lily-of-the-valley, and murmuring.
Ugliest? Well, I don’t even like to type the words I find gross.
Henry James opined: “Summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
How about you? One word or two. Most beautiful or ugliest. Please share.
ugliest: assassination
beautiful - beautiful is pretty beautiful - so is peace, harmony, balance, love - imagination
ugly - ugly is pretty ugly - so is war, hatred, intolerance, ignorance and dreamlessness
most beautiful: llama, mellow, piglet
ugly: doodle and other words that include it - labradoodle, snickerdoodle
pulchritude….it means beauty, but it is an ugly word itself
dysphemism….a pleasant sounding word for something quite ugly
aubade…what a lovely sounding word, a lovely concept…then go read Philip Larkin’s “Aubade,” a very mixed poem: beautiful in its descriptions, penetrating in its honesty, heartbreaking, dark and refreshing all at the same time.
englaciating (en GLAY shee ayt ing) (my own word, backformation from glacier) adjective (1) boring, mind-numbing (2) frozen, dense, slow moving in thought, argument or manners “He is an englaciating public speaker: think of Ralph Nader, but without the charm” used by me in an email describing a lecture by Jared Diamond, 2007.
felch…an ugly sounding word describing one of the most disgusting behaviors even I could not imagine. A colleague of mine at the office–a lapsed Catholic herself–found it on a tongue-in-cheek on-line confession website that assigns a penance for each sin you click from well organized lists of transgressions.
most beautiful word - bliss
beautiful word — fontanel
beautiful: karma
ugly: CarMax
beautiful: exquisite
ugly: eugenics
Beautiful - melifluous
Ugly - crotch
I always found the color names of crayons beautiful.
Burnt Sienna, Cornflower, Raw Umber…
Although Ochre was an ugly sounding word, I found beautiful uses for the color itself.
beautiful words: calla lily, serendipity
ugly: curdled, ugly
Beautiful - baby’s breath
Ugly - putrid
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favorite words:
petrichor-the smell of the earth after it rains
paramour-secret lover
zeigeist-spirit of the time
musing-meditative
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