A few months ago, McCagg began using his blog and his bracket system to answer a question: What is the best word ever? Not the funniest word or the most erudite word or the most whimsical word … but The Best Word, full stop. What if, you know, the scallawag could eke out a thingamajig that would help him select the least milquetoast morsel from our linguistic smorgasbord?
Today, McCagg has answered his question. The best word ever – according to deep lexicographical research, science, taste, and common sense – is this: diphthong.
How did McCagg decide which words, out of the hundreds of thousands we’ve dreamed up, deserve inclusion? “Hornswoggle” is a given, obviously … but what about the others?
“I read the dictionary,” McCagg says. “And picked out about 20-30 great words for each letter.” He based those selections on a couple of factors. “For me, it has to be something you’ve heard. Something that sounds fun. Something that’s fun to say. Basically, something, should you ever come across it in day to day life, you stop and think, ‘I love that word.’”
So why, in the end, “diphthong? Which is also to ask: Why not “hornswoggle”?
“That was a tough call,” McCagg concedes. But “that silent ‘h’ in diphthong made all the difference.”
I’ve had a brief look at the guy’s blog, and prefer the following words to the eventual winner: ubiquitous, serendipity, quixotic, flummox, ephemeral, and discombobulate.
Also, why wasn’t quintessential even on the candidate list? I better not think too much more about it, otherwise I might end up doing my own “bracket” analysis.