Is the most beautiful phrase in English . . . cellar door?
The claim that cellar door is beautiful to the ear — in opposition to its prosaic meaning — has been made by and attributed to a wide variety of writers over the years. . . .
The fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien, who was also a philologist, might well be the linguist she had in mind. He mentioned the idea of cellar door’s special beauty in a speech in 1955 and is often given credit for it. Other supposed authors abound; the story is tangled. But Tolkien, at least, can be ruled out as the originator. He was, after all, just 11 years old in 1903 when a curious novel called “Gee-Boy” — which also alludes to the aesthetic properties of cellar door — was published by the Shakespeare scholar Cyrus Lauron Hooper. Hooper’s narrator writes of the title character: “He even grew to like sounds unassociated with their meaning, and once made a list of the words he loved most, as doubloon, squadron, thatch, fanfare, (he never did know the meaning of this one), Sphinx, pimpernel, Caliban, Setbos, Carib, susurro, torquet, Junfrau. He was laughed at by a friend, but logic was his as well as sentiment; an Italian savant maintained that the most beautiful combination of English sounds was cellar-door; no association of ideas here to help out! sensuous impression merely! the cellar-door is purely American.”
Tolkien wasn’t the only one; H. L. Mencken, Gertrude Stein, C.S. Lewis, and Norman Mailer seem to have considered it a contender too.
March 9th, 2010 | 10:41 am
I recall reading somewhere that some scholar or critic (I forget who and which) chose “gonorrhea” as the most euphonious English word.
March 9th, 2010 | 10:54 am
I don’t have a nomination for most beautiful phrase, but for a single word, I suggest “crisp.” The sandwich of hard sounds around the soft “s” is delightful to the ear. At least, to me.
March 9th, 2010 | 10:57 am
The article, which traces every use of “cellar door” it can find, manages to ignore the childhood song “Playmate.” Recorded in the 40′s, “Playmate” and its line “slide down my cellar door” has been sung by every little girl since then. The 40′s song was a redo of an 1894 song. I wonder how much the charm of the phrase “cellar door” reflects the idyllic childhood represented in the “Playmate” song. A simple google search, based on my girlhood memory of the song, turned up everything the NY Times had to say and much more.
March 9th, 2010 | 11:54 pm
Dwindling. Best word, hands down.
March 10th, 2010 | 8:37 am
Be careful how you use this information.
In the early 1980s, I was a student, attending a speech by a business leader, who asked “What’s the most beautiful word in the English language?” Having heard on NPR a couple of days before that linguists had determined it was “cellar,” I excitedly raised my hand and gave the answer in front of the hundreds in attendance. The speaker was puzzled and then scoffed at me.
At salesman at heart, the answer he was looking for was “the sound of your own name,” and encouraged all of us to use the first names of those we converse with, because it’s music to their ears.
The owner of a Twin Cities envelope business company, the speaker went on to become one of the most successful authors in the “business motivation” category, Harvey Mackay.
March 10th, 2010 | 8:09 pm
“Open bar!”
“Drinks on the house!”
“I’m buying…!”
Or something like that.
All so sublimely melodious…
March 10th, 2010 | 10:28 pm
Mary,
The song came to mind as soon as I saw the words cellar door. We used to sing Playmate in the 1930s when we played n the back yard near the rain barrel and cellar door.
From my memory
Playmate,
Come out and play with me
Climb up my apple tree
—-?—– my rain barrel
Slide down my cellar door
And we’ll be jolly friends
Forevermore
She couldn’t come out to play
It was a rainy day
With tearful eye
She breathed a sigh
And this to me she’d say
I’m sorry, playmate
I cannot play with you
My dolly’s got the flu
Boo hoo, Boo hoo, Boo hoo
Can’t (climb ?) your rain barrel
Or slide down your cellar door
But we’ll be jolly friends
Forevermore
March 11th, 2010 | 1:06 pm
My two daughters, ages 5 and 4, were watching a cartoon last week. A coven of wicked witches had just appointed a giant one-eyed spider named “Ogg” to thwart the progress of the heroes.
“He’s an ugly spider,” said my 5-year old, “but he has a pretty name.” “He’s got a booo-tiful name!”, agreed my 4-year old. “Ogg”, they repeated together.
Parenthood is quite an education.
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