Erinaceous adj. resembling the chap above. Photograph: PA
In case you aren't already desperately excited, tomorrow is International Literacy Day. OK, these 'days' are silly, but put aside cynicism for a while because a) it's Friday afternoon b) we can all support a drive for worldwide literacy c) the charity Education Action has come up with a stunt that we can all join in on.
The present-participle abusing group ("rebuilding lives through education") has asked a group of distinguished writers and MPs to name their favourite words.
If you're able to ignore Mark Pritchard MP for Wrekin's puke-making choice of the word "love" and George Galloway's self-reflective "indefatigability", the lists make for enjoyable reading.
Boris Johnson, a man I just can't help liking in spite of everything, has selected the rather lovely "carminative", which he regards as "a splendid word... which means a spell - its effects being highly beneficial".
Elliot Morley, MP for Scunthorpe, has gone for the surprisingly romantic and evocative "crepuscular ... a word that describes creatures active in the twilight of day and dusk."
Meanwhile, on the literary side, Anne Fine's choice is "frangipani" a word that's just fun to say. The Booker prize nominee Mohsin Hamid has plumped for the undeniably erotic "bikini", while his rival Lloyd Jones has nominated "serendipity" because "it sounds exactly as it should: playful and impossible to tie down. It is the most optimistic word in the English language, and so much more surprising than the word 'surprise'."
Anne Enright gets my vote out of the Booker nominees, however. "Tilt: it has so much poise, and the consonants are very fine. It's a perfectly balanced, knife-edge of a word, but gentle all the same."
And to prove that the organisers are working at the very top of the literary game, they have turned to no less an authority than our own Sarah Crown, who has chosen the rather splendid "erinaceous", meaning "hedgehog-like".
Fun isn't it?
To kick things off, I suppose I should name a favourite of my own.
"Peculiar" - such a useful and suggestive word.
What's yours?
