favorite word?
i thought about this for a while. wasn't sure what to say, like, what word do i like the sounds of? the meanings? the object the word describes? contenders were 'rhombus', 'trilobite', 'brrrring' (like a telephone) - all for sounds. meaning, 'life' was the big contender; it's everything i love. object/actions like 'fossil' and 'learning' were there, too.
but i think. my favorite word is 'mama'. because in very nearly every language, the word for mother is 'mama' or very very close to it. it's because it's some of the first and easiest sounds for a baby to make. so every language, every mother, decided that yes. yes, i hear you baby. you are babbling and saying mama and i will respond to it. it is not my name but it can be my name, only for you to use. because i love you.
it's a word that's etymology doesn't trace back to a root word we can't find. we can see it. we can hear it. it's very nearly universal. if someone yells for mama, it's a 99.9999% chance that no matter your language, you know who they are calling for. because it's mama. it's mama. how could you not recognize mama?