Copyeditor
After a lively discussion in the
office about how the sounds of certain words make us cringe (moist anyone?) and others are music to
our ears (my personal favorite: tabernacle;
other office suggestions: mellifluous,
resplendent and epiphany), I decided to investigate more examples. In doing so, I hit
the jackpot. I found a word about words.
As a language lover, I’ve always delighted
in discovering new terms. But there’s something extra special—something
downright magical—about discovering a new word that describes words. So what’s the term for the study of how speech
sounds? Phonaesthetics.
I ate the term up. I said it over
and over again (fun fact: it sounds better in a British accent). I went home
and looked up more and more examples of beautiful/disgusting sounding words,
and when that wasn’t enough, I soon found myself digging around for more
magical discoveries—more words about words. Discoveries that I had to share
with fellow language lovers. Here are a few of my favorites (in alphabetical
order, of course).
ambigram:
a word that, if viewed upside down, is still the same word. Typeface certainly
changes the game here. In fact, many artists alter certain letter styling to
create ambigrams. A more straightforward example is the word dollop. (Go ahead, try to look at it
upside down.)
contronym:
a word with two meanings that are opposite of each other. A recent example is the
word literally. Many dictionaries now
include both the original “in actual meaning” definition as well as the
colloquial use of “in effect.”
crutch
word: maybe the least exciting of the bunch, but it is definitely the most
common. Honestly, crutch words are basically like the extra words that we essentially
tend to unnecessarily add in because in a
weird way they don’t actually
provide like further meaning to the
sentence.
eponym:
the fancy term for a brand name that has entered common usage. Pass me a
Kleenex (because a facial tissue just won’t do).
minced
oath: a euphemism for a less appropriate term. Like what the heck in place of, well, you know.
mondegreen:
the term for what we’re all guilty of: mishearing the lyrics of a song. My poor
cousin will never live down when he thought Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ la Vida
Loca” was “Livin’ to Be the Lifeguard.”
portmanteau:
a word that combines multiple words. I unofficially coin these all the time.
When you’re getting a drink at Starbucks that’s inside of a Target? You’re at a
Tarbucks! More legitimate examples include smog,
spork and telemarketing.
syllepsis:
the act of using one word to apply to two words differently, e.g., As he
pondered the recent stock market crash, the man was deep in thought and debt.
I could go on, but that could literally take forever.
Did You Know?
The word portmanteau, which also means a large carrying bag, actually is a portmanteau. The term comes from
combining the French words porter, to
carry and manteaux, mantle. Is there a word to describe a word that is an
example of itself? Of course there is: autological.
The best example of an autological word is the word . . . word.
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