addendum (31,152)

Idle Type positively made my day with this site. It’s fun AND topical!

It’s a graphic, interactive display of the top 86,800 most frequently used words in the English language (according to the British National Corpus). Naturally, I had to go back and find the ranks of my nine special guys. Are you waiting with bated breath? I knew it. Here they are:

1. palimpsest (59,262)
2. feckless (35,486)
3. lothario (61,911)
4. flaneur (not on the list)
5. incunabulum (nope)
6. pragmatic (8,403)
7. discrete (11,392)
8. preclude (15,638)
9. artless (52,047)

Then, obsessively, I decided to go back and see what flanked each of the words that made it onto the list:

1. pto — palimpsest — sultanate
2. republicanism — feckless — violates
3. fiata — lothario — inconspicuously
4. fluctuations — pragmatic — ecclesiastical
5. antibiotics — discrete — visibility
6. livery — preclude — piazza
7. bunnies — artless — trattoria

There is a lot of happy accident in what this turns up, in my opinion, and it’s good for the soul. For example, “artless” is happily nestled between two words which I would have to say are among my favorites in meaning, if not as much for pure aesthetic value. Although, when you get right down to it, “bunnies” is just a seriously great word all around.

And you know what comes right before bunnies in the list? BELUGAS. How great is that?

Also (the fun just never ends!), a few favorites I’d forgotten to include in my original list:

1. churlish (30,948), with neighbors dimity and moderated
2. zeitgeist (53,515), snuggled between mainspring and overslept (ha! this is 53,516??? who are these people? I use this one EVERY DAY.)
3. apprehensive (15,519), rather ominously falling between punishing and blinded

Now, one thing I’ll note: I’m thinking that some of these might be just a bit more reflective of a British speakership than others. I’ll offer as an example Whitsuntide, which rolls in at 56,113. I can’t say I can actually recall using this word, ever. I’ve read it…but used it? Don’t think so. Yet it is one notch higher than “azalea,” which I have used, on several occasions. Hmm.

On the plus side of Anglo-centrism, Morrissey places a pretty impressive 8,676.

And the final word in the list? Conquistador. Funny…I use this one fairly often.

(No, really, I do. In writing, at least. But clearly not everyone works on geography/history books for a living�)

Fresca’s frippery, alas, doesn’t make the cut. It must be #86,801.