My favorite word in the English language is “effervescent.” It can mean bubbly in a literal sense, like champagne, or bubbly in a figurative sense, like a teenage girl at a concert for her favorite band. I like it because the shape of it feels like the meaning, all the “f’s” and “s’s” fizzing off your lips as you say it.
Daniel Tammet, author of “Every Word is a Bird We Teach to Sing,” seems like a guy who would understand exactly what I mean by that. The way he describes language is deft and delightful. An author and linguist, he has spent a lifetime immersed in the beauty of words.
The book dives into his unique perspective on them as an autistic student of written expression whose first “language” was numbers. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
.
