About Word Tasting Notes

Words are delicious and intoxicating. They do much more than just denote; they have appearance, sound, a feel in the mouth, and words they sound like and travel with. All of these participate in the aesthetic experience of the word and can affect communication. So why not taste them like a fine wine?

Word tasting notes are not simple accounts of facts; they deliberately go further in aestheticizing the verbal object, just as the object of wine tasting is not simply to evaluate and describe but to find as much as one can in the wine. So the various visual features and echoes noted in the word tasting notes may or may not have any effect on the day-to-day use of the word; the fact that similarity of sound does not always have much if any effect can be illustrated by how often a person will be surprised by the connection made by a pun. On the other hand, phonaesthetics do clearly have some influence on meaning and usage. Word tastings look at the word from its various angles in search of both information and delight.

In short, word tasting notes are unabashedly highbrow fun with words. The daily WTN email, which you can subscribe to at http://groups.google.ca/group/word-tasting-notes, is the Margaux of word-a-day emails.

The Word Tasting Note Index gives you access to all word tastings done to date.