Cellar Door: a quest to find the most beautiful word in English

https://www.cellar-door.co.uk/

by ArisC • 2 years ago

22 19 2 years ago

cellar-door.co.uk

ArisC3• 2 years ago

Some context here: https://logos.substack.com/p/cellar-door

Very fun and almost addictive. I would like a bit more help though with what is meant by 'beautiful'. Or maybe that's the point, whatever the user infers from that single word is what they're looking for.

yesbabyyes• 2 years ago

A bit of background: JRR Tolkien developed a linguistic branch he called "phonaesthetics", the study of beauty of words. Many writers have agreed on "cellar door" to be beautiful in terms of the sound of the phrase.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonaesthetics#Cellar_door

Wistar• 2 years ago

Interesting. I have long thought the word “celerity” to be a beautiful word.

sparky_z• 2 years ago

I've heard it said (perhaps apocryphally) that when non-English speakers are asked to judge words based purely on aesthetics, the word 'diarrhea' tends to rank quite highly.

mindvirus• 2 years ago

Very interesting, I'd always thought it was a made up thing from Donnie Darko.

keiferski• 2 years ago

I don’t remember where I first read it (Google is showing TH Huxley) and it’s two words, not one – but the phrase “mellifluous eloquence” is my answer to this question.

As a side note I wonder if this project is addressing the tendency for people to perceive Latin-origin words as being more beautiful or sophisticated, compared to Germanic ones.

hailpixel• 2 years ago

In case you missed it, the current leader is `tRNA`: https://www.cellar-door.co.uk/leaderboard

Which, isn't even a word, but I enjoy the internet doing classic internet things.

Edit: It is now `no`. Amazing.

NoboruWataya• 2 years ago

The leader is "no", which seems odd. The second one is "trna", which is apparently "a type of RNA that helps in the translation of messenger RNA into proteins by carrying specific amino acids to the ribosome". Is that even a word? Like, do people pronounce it "turna" or something?

(Fun game though)

H8crilA• 2 years ago

Yeah the ranking looks completely busted. Unless people actually like those words.

elpocko2• 2 years ago

Ranking is manipulated, I just saw "incompetent" quite high up. Now it's gone.

Xylakant• 2 years ago

The ranking is quite close at the mid-high ranks. There's 4 points of difference between rank 27 and 100 - high fluctuation without manipulation is entirely expected.

ArisC3• 2 years ago

I think someone hacked my sql table :(

RhysU• 2 years ago

"inoubliable" if you'll pardon my French. You can't forget this word once you see its definition.

jareklupinski• 2 years ago

it's soliloquy

Cellar Door: a quest to find the most beautiful word in English

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