Bon Mot

‘“GIRLS in white dresses with blue satin sashes, ointments that get rid of, er, spots and bad rashes, brown paper packages wrapped up in strings…”

‘Discombobulate’

These are of course a few of our favourite things – but what would we choose if we had to distil it all into one word. What, in short, is our favourite word in the English language?

We will leave you to ponder that over a boiled egg – Is Comfi-Slax one word or two? Do you prefer to Feltz or to Wheelbarrow? – while we look at some of the words chosen in a survey of more than 40,000 people in 102 non-English speaking countries.

We no doubt have the non-English speaking president of the United States to thank for the presence of ‘freedom’ and ‘liberty’ in the Top 10, both of which incidentally come in above ‘peace’ and ‘tranquillity’.

We imagine Dubya is also responsible for “flip-flip” at No.59, and quite possibly “hodgepodge” at No.64. “Pretzel” sadly doesn’t quite do enough to make the list.

But what about “fuselage” (67), “smithereens” (60) and “explosion” (66)?

According to the British Council, which conducted the survey to mark its 70th anniversary, they were the choices of a certain Mr B Laden, Tora Bora, Afghanistan.

So, now you’ve finished your boiled egg, what is the most beautiful word in the English language?

We’ll give you a clue – the Express uses a picture of Kate Winslet to illustrate it.

No, not “podgy” nor “rotund”, you horrible people. What? “Titanic”? Come on, what’s Kate really famous for? “Divorced”? No. “Sobbing”?

Okay, we’ll tell you. The answer is…“mother”. That’s right, mother is the favourite word in the whole of the English language.

As voted for by a Mr S Hussein, formerly of Iraq, and author of the phrase “mother of all battles”…’

Posted: 25th, November 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink