Mimosa, Moonbeams & Memory

On a newscast over Houston station KPRC in 1936, Commentator Frank Colby mentioned the Dionne "KWIN-tyoo-plits." Listeners barraged him with protests; they said that the correct pronunciation was kwin-TUH-plits or kwinTOO-plits. After Colby had cited Webster to prove that his pronunciation was preferred, he decided to start a column in the Houston Chronicle about words, their pronunciation and derivation. It was such a success that Colby settled down full-time to writing a daily column, "Take My Word for It," now syndicated in 600 newspapers.

While most of the words that Colby discusses are suggested by his readers, Colby turned the tables in 1942 by asking them: What are the most euphonious English words? The top ten by popular vote: mother, memory, Cellophane, bellboy, melancholy, belladonna, flamingo, wilderness, tambourine, lavender. Last week Logophile Colby reported the results of a new readers' poll. Mother had slipped a bit, but was still listed among the top ten. There were eight new favorites. The 1950 hit parade: melody, lullaby, mimosa, memory, mellow, mother, moonbeam, murmuring, beautiful, lanolin.

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