Wilfred J Funk's (1932) list of ten most beautiful words in English: dawn, hush, lullaby, murmuring, tranquil, mist, luminous, chimes, golden, and melody. Ring Lardner's list of ten most beautiful words in English: gangrene, flit, scram, mange, wretch, smoot with a small ‘s’, guzzle, McNaboe, blute, crene. A blute being a smoker who doesn’t inhale, and a crene a man who inhales but doesn’t smoke.

I had a professor at college who used to admonish us not to confuse a symbol with its meaning. He used to say:
Quote:
Syphilis is a beautiful word but a horrible thing. The sentence "Phyllis has syphilis" is beautiful. Poor Phyllis.
These lists are just a nuisance.

Ceci n'est pas un seing.