[Ann Drysdale]

The whole thing is skewed by adding the definitions alongside. It alters how one sees/says.

I play a classroom game where we choose whether to take a magical word "selador" and run with it, or "write a poem about a cellar door". I've had some interesting results.

One of the poems my father encouraged me to read when I was quite small was "Romance" by W J Turner. I urge you to find it and read it aloud - none of this subvocalising malarkey, mind.

Mmmm - malarkey...

[Allen Tice]

Porfirio Rubirosa. Porfirio is a modern form of the Byzantine and earlier name Porphyry, meaning purple, royalish.

There's a story still circulating about the larger 14-20 inch-long pepper mills found in some restaurants that were, and are still perhaps, called "Rubirosas". Since this is a family-orientated page, I cannot explain why this term came into use, but you can puzzle it out for yourself like an Anglo-Saxon riddle, or --- if you must --- send me a private message and I will reply with the humungous alleged truth. (But you must certify in some satisfactory way, such as swearing on a copy of The Analects in front of four adult witnesses, that you are of legal age in your political jurisdiction. Otherwise, I cannot impart the awesome rumored fact.)


PS: Oh well, the secret, such as it was (how could we know for sure) seems to be available to aficionados:

He was the alpha male, the complete package of a gentleman. He had style, charisma, and personality, and to add was noted by multiple sources to be very well endowed. In fact, to this day the extra-long pepper mills in French bistros are called “Rubirosas”.

[Susan d.S.]

Thanks, Allen! We've definitely digressed. All of his appeal, of course, was in his name, royal purple red ruby.

[peterjb]

Pretty hard to judge a word on sound alone, independently of its meaning. Thus death sounds scary, and maybe ugly by association, but selador might sound as sinister if it meant what death means.

I heard there was once a "most beautiful word in English" contest, and the winner was announced as swallow. Picture the trim curves, the graceful swooping, etc. Then someone asked, “Bird or gulp?”

[Skip Dewahl]

Porfirio Rubirosa, could conceivably bring up associations such as perfidious and rubella: Perfidious Rubella, if you will.

Besides "cellar door", selador (but for -d-) sounds like French c'est la taure, "it's the heifer".

[Jones Pat]

A word I love for the way it feels when I speak it, for its sound, the way it rolls out of my mouth...for all its meanings...verb, noun, past and present tense...is cure. Such a simple word with multiple meanings and I don't think I've ever used it writing.

[John Whitworth]

Is that the South American volcanoes poem, Ann?

[Ann Drysdale]

Yup. 'Tis.

[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

Originally Posted by Jones Pat

A word I love for the way it feels when I speak it, for its sound, the way it rolls out of my mouth...for all its meanings...verb, noun, past and present tense...is cure. Such a simple word with multiple meanings and I don't think I've ever used it writing.

I agree, but I'm also a huge fan of the pop/rock group, The Cure, so that connotation might make me biased.

Duncan

[Allen Tice]

Originally Posted by Skip Dewahl

Porfirio Rubirosa, could conceivably bring up associations such as perfidious and rubella: Perfidious Rubella, if you will.

Besides "cellar door", selador (but for -d-) sounds like French c'est la taure, "it's the heifer".

I think that you are just envious of P.R.'s .... reputation. Still, that's OK.