Bradd
325 posts
Jun 03, 2007
9:36 PM
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"Acellardoor" ('a cellar door', three words, sorry), according to Mr. Cregan, a Jesuit scholastic, many decades ago. He even gave us the reasons - something to do with the "l" sound, soft "c", and some other reasons long forgotten now. Do I win anything?
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SapphireMoon
85 posts
Aug 04, 2007
11:39 PM
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Here's a Wikipedia version of the "cellar door" story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellar_door I remember my mother's telling me the Italian-immigrant version of it when I was a child. In fact, she attributed it to a celebrity, perhaps an Italian opera singer, who supposedly gave that answer when asked by an American reporter what she thought was the most beautiful word in the English language. I believed that version right up until a few minutes ago, when I read the Wikipedia entry. (Gee, do you suppose my mother could ever have been mistaken about anything else? Yes, I always thought so too.) Divorcing a word from its associations and perhaps even its spelling and just hearing the sound alone is an interesting exercise. Another one that has a lovely sound in itself is "lazanya." Similarly, I think the French word "aubergine" is perfectly beautiful.
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