We use words every day. They’re like air. When not speaking, we think, conspire, and hope in internal monologues. Even while sleeping, our dreams pop up in word bubbles. Though most of us value words for their practical value, poets, writers, and politicians deal with words as the primary tools of their crafts. Words are powerful and can evoke strong emotions, like love or disgust, and persuade people to embrace new ideas and change their behaviour.
In George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, the citizens of an authoritarian State were kept within a mental prison—not by physical barriers but by outlawing the old vocabulary and forcing the people to use a much trimmer and sanitised Newspeak language. The Newspeak brainwashed the people through doublethink and self-contradictory language such as Freedom is Slavery, War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength, etc. The language was deliberately made useless for expressing views critical of the State, enforced by replacing all negative words with more neutral ones. For example, the terrible, the oppressive, the unfair and the bad became ungood. A furious person who wants to criticise the leader must express his biting tirade with a whimper, “Our leader is very ungood.” How clever!
Thank God, we don’t live in an Orwellian world with our vocabulary’s wings clipped. However, we face the same fate as powerful interests bury our little speeches under the volume of their narrative avalanches. Marginalised people are shouted down and denied their seats at the high table to air their views on the mikes. Though we know the same vocabulary, some people have more decibels.
This verbal divide aside, there are unique words that most people find beautiful, either due to their cadence, imagery, or the emotions behind them, which is the topic of this column.
According to a 2014 survey conducted by the British Council in 102 countries, the world’s most beautiful words are not high-brow or literary but come from humble and unassuming everyday parlance. The fifteen most beautiful words are Mother, Passion, Smile, Love, Eternity, Fantastic, Destiny, Freedom, Liberty, Tranquility, Peace, Blossom, Sunshine, Sweetheart, and Gorgeous.
These sweet words are self-explanatory, and they have a common theme that unites them. They evoke the character of human relationships, aspirational human conditions, positivity and growth. Beautiful itself is not among the beautiful words; somehow, gorgeous represents the essence. Remarkable is the absence of words with negative connotations like hatred, stupid, ugly, shit, moron, go-to-hell, etc.
An alternative list of 30 words by Readers’ Digest includes most of my favourite words. However, I am too shy to use them in my writing because I have developed a brotherly feeling for them, protective of their exposure. The shortlisted words are here, but their meanings are excluded because of the space constraints of Imphal Times, which is so cute. Hold your breathe while I unveil the darlings: Serendipity, Ethereal, Luminous, Aurora, Ineffable, Solitude, Ephemeral, Crescendo, Petrichor, Mellifluous, Euphoria, Quintessential, Gossamer, Halcyon, Lullaby, Epiphany, Solace, Vellichor, Zenith, Elysian, Labyrinthine, Iridescent, Reverie, Sonder, Limerence, Effervescent, Susurrus, Equanimity, Phosphenes and Sapphire. I suggest you open up your smartphone’s built-in dictionary to check the definition of the words. You won’t be disappointed.
Why should we just confine ourselves to the English language, which has anyway borrowed heavily from other languages of the world? Over the years, I have come across some of the most sonorous foreign words with deep, abstract meanings that have no equivalents in the English language. I discovered these outlier words through sheer serendipity on Instagram and Pinterest. Sample these: Saudade, a Portuguese word, expresses a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for someone or something that is lost or absent; Komorebi in Japanese describes the sunlight filtering through the leaves of trees; Schadenfreude, from German, refers to the pleasure one feels from another’s misfortune; Sobremesa, a Spanish word, refers to the time spent chatting and bonding after a meal; Goya in Urdu speaks to the suspension of disbelief that occurs in great storytelling; Cafuné, in Brazilian Portuguese, describes the act of tenderly running your fingers through someone’s hair; Tsundoku, a Japanese term, describes the habit of acquiring books and letting them pile up without reading them; Wabi-Sabi, also Japanese, refers to the beauty found in imperfection and transience; Mamihlapinatapai, from Yaghan, describes a wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who both want to initiate something but are hesitant to start; Iktsuarpok, from Inuit, refers to the feeling of anticipation when waiting for someone to arrive; Resfeber, a Swedish term, describes the restless excitement felt before a journey begins; Torschlusspanik, from German, captures the fear of missed opportunities as one ages; Duende, from Spanish, is the powerful emotional response to art or music; Ubuntu, from the Nguni Bantu languages, speaks of a shared humanity that connects us all; Dolce Far Niente, Italian, is the the sweetness of doing nothing; Philoxenia from Greek means the love of strangers; and Psithurism, another Greek word, is the soothing sound of rustling leaves.
After going through the above list, I can almost visualise Psithurism while strolling in the garden with Duende with my headphones, ruminating about Tsundoku at my home library but contented with Dolce Far Niente, my feelings enveloped in Limerance, missing her Cafuné.
Is it too much to decode? Find the nuances of these pleasant words. I assure you, it will be worth your time and effort on this fantastic Sunday. And you don’t worry about perfection. Embrace Wabi-Sabi, oh mother, I need a lullaby.
