{"id":649,"date":"2012-09-20T08:26:19","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T20:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=649"},"modified":"2012-09-20T08:26:19","modified_gmt":"2012-09-19T20:26:19","slug":"the-best-word-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=649","title":{"rendered":"The best word ever?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?attachment_id=648\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-648\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-648\" title=\"Words\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Words.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"249\" height=\"224\" \/><\/a>Lately, there have been a number of informal surveys and discussions aimed at trying to find \u2018the best word ever\u2019 \u2013 a sort of Number One on the hit parade of the English lexicon.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the criteria by which the candidate words are to be judged have been left largely to those taking part in the various surveys.\u00a0 And everyone seems to be using slightly different criteria.<\/p>\n<p>Some respondents appear to favour utility, throwing their weight behind humble everyday words like \u2018us\u2019, \u2018family\u2019, \u2018home\u2019, \u2018love\u2019 and \u2018friendship\u2019.\u00a0 For others, the sound of the word is all important.\u00a0 \u2018Smooth\u2019, \u2018harmonious,\u2019 \u2018crepuscular\u2019, \u2018luxurious\u2019, and \u2018opulent\u2019 are some of the words chosen for the ease with which they trip \u2013 mellifluously \u2013 off the tongue.<\/p>\n<p>Many people have nominated multisyllabic words that lean towards the whimsical \u2013 flibbertigibbet, for example, and tickety-boo.\u00a0 And a surprising number of words temporarily borrowed from other languages have made it onto some of the long lists.\u00a0 Both <em>maquillage<\/em> and <em>schadenfreude<\/em> have garnered support even though neither word has yet been fully adopted into the English language.<\/p>\n<p>In one of the few surveys to reach something of a conclusion, the final shortlist included \u2018gherkin\u2019, \u2018kerfuffle\u2019, \u2018diphthong\u2019, and \u2018hornswoggle\u2019.\u00a0 And the winner was \u2026 drumroll, please \u2026 \u2018diphthong\u2019.\u00a0 Goodness knows why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lately, there have been a number of informal surveys and discussions aimed at trying to find \u2018the best word ever\u2019 \u2013 a sort of Number One on the hit parade of the English lexicon.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the criteria by which the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/?p=649\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions\/650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kiwistreet.co.nz\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}