This afternoon Bravo had a marathon of Inside the Actors Studio with James Lipton. I love that show. It is always fascinating to listen to accomplished people discuss the creative process. (Plus Robin Williams unleashed is hilarious.) At the end of each interview Lipton goes through a series of questions that includes "What is your favorite word?" Although the trend at the moment seems to be Stephen Colbert's 'truthiness', I have two that I cannot decide between: Wrath and Sorrow.
Wrath is just a fun word to say. Plus it's got that cool W at the beginning. It's like it's saying 'hey I could be just four letters but I pack so much emotional punch I had to reach out an grab an extra.' It's also almost single handedly responsible for making Star Trek II the best Trek movie ever.
Sorrow is larger than life in much the same way. It conveys so much more than just saying 'really, really sad.' It has that sense of gut wrenching sadness along with regret and pain that is never, ever going to stop.
So those are my two favorite words as far as I know. Any auditions for additions will be considered.
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6 comments:
Would you consider those two lovely sisters discombobulate and discombobulation ?
What lovely words these are! They roll off the tongue and reverberate within the caverns of your cheeks.
I also love the surname of the new French President 'Sarkozy'. Have you heard it said with a French accent? The first syllable 'sa' is spat out like an insult, the 'r' is rolled around the soft palate connecting with a glottal 'k' in an explosion of sound, while the 'ozy' is a languid labial caress. Why is French such a sexy language?
French sounds cool, but I like Spanish and its cousins, Italian, Portuguese, and Latin. I especially like to read Spanish aloud. Very cool.
But as for good old Anglo-Saxon words (since we're dealing in English), well, I'm not sure I have a favorite.
Here are a few on the long list of likes: ethereal, stalwart, massive, concrete, chuckle, valiant.
L- The trouble with discombobulate is that I don't think you can recombobulate something. I'm also not so sure that being combobulated is something desirable either.
KB- Ethereal shows promise. It sounds like what it means.
chocolate
Chardonnay
cheese
favourite
faith
hope
trust
love
family
'these are a few of my favourite words'
Seren- All good words, yes, but only because of what they mean and not because of the word itself. (Although Chardonnay has a pleasing ring to it.) I was more thinking about the sound of the word or the look of it on the page.
Taking a glance at your original comments, I've just noticed properly how much weight you've given to 'sorrow'. I think of 'sorrow' as being a short-lived, shallowish kind of sadness - more akin to regret, and the kind of word oft used by poets to describe some failed love affair. It's too pretty a word to describe such a searing enveloping emotion. For me, intense prolonged sadness is defined by 'grief'. Short, harsh and ugly; to be used only sparingly.
'Wrath' I'll go with, though I don't consider 'Wrath of Khan' to be the best Star Trek film ever. That glory goes to Start Trek IV.
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