“I find that by putting things in writing I can understand them and see them a little more objectively ... For words are merely tools and if you use the right ones you can actually put even your life in order, if you don't lie to yourself and use the wrong words.” Hunter S. Thomson
--from a letter to Larry Callen, July, 14, 1958 (found in the collection of his early letter, “The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman)”
I took the advice of Thomson and as I ordered my words, the word “wanderlust” came first. It came in the early teens driven by hours and days and nights of vicarious experience; the freedom of adventure on adventure as we plunged into an endless stream of novels set off-island in every-which-where places. It’s a beautiful and wonderful word.
“Dépaysement” came years later. It carries that meaning of being somewhat lost, somewhat disoriented in a strange country and culture. It’s in the beauty of the word rather than any stirring of feeling. Let’s forget it’s a French word. There is a power of beauty in words!
What is the most ‘beautiful’ word in the English language? Is it “wanderlust” or “caramel” or “dépaysement"? “Caramel” it is; nothing on the World Wide Web comes close. It has a power of sound you can almost caress; a rich swirl of colour; a movement of associations.
It could be that the most beautiful word in the English language is actually a cluster of words. We think of ‘epiphany’ which is a gossamer uplook on a crystal, December morning; an eternal instant. Juxtapose this with ‘syzygy’ which is “the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) in a gravitational system” Merriam-Webster) or expressed otherwise: Astronomy A conjunction or opposition, especially of the moon with the sun: ‘the planets were aligned in syzygy’ (Oxford dictionary). ‘Epiphany’, ‘wanderlust’, ‘syzygy’, ‘caramel’ do make a most unlikely quartet.
It’s time to temporarily ignore definitions and just find your own ‘most beautiful words’. Perhaps in 2016 you will also begin another journey of discovery, self-discovery, other discoveries starting with your own “most beautiful word(s).
Happy New Year!
--from a letter to Larry Callen, July, 14, 1958 (found in the collection of his early letter, “The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman)”
I took the advice of Thomson and as I ordered my words, the word “wanderlust” came first. It came in the early teens driven by hours and days and nights of vicarious experience; the freedom of adventure on adventure as we plunged into an endless stream of novels set off-island in every-which-where places. It’s a beautiful and wonderful word.
“Dépaysement” came years later. It carries that meaning of being somewhat lost, somewhat disoriented in a strange country and culture. It’s in the beauty of the word rather than any stirring of feeling. Let’s forget it’s a French word. There is a power of beauty in words!
What is the most ‘beautiful’ word in the English language? Is it “wanderlust” or “caramel” or “dépaysement"? “Caramel” it is; nothing on the World Wide Web comes close. It has a power of sound you can almost caress; a rich swirl of colour; a movement of associations.
It could be that the most beautiful word in the English language is actually a cluster of words. We think of ‘epiphany’ which is a gossamer uplook on a crystal, December morning; an eternal instant. Juxtapose this with ‘syzygy’ which is “the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (as the sun, moon, and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) in a gravitational system” Merriam-Webster) or expressed otherwise: Astronomy A conjunction or opposition, especially of the moon with the sun: ‘the planets were aligned in syzygy’ (Oxford dictionary). ‘Epiphany’, ‘wanderlust’, ‘syzygy’, ‘caramel’ do make a most unlikely quartet.
It’s time to temporarily ignore definitions and just find your own ‘most beautiful words’. Perhaps in 2016 you will also begin another journey of discovery, self-discovery, other discoveries starting with your own “most beautiful word(s).
Happy New Year!
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