The UK’s favourite words?
Rushda:
September 7th, 2007
An interesting bid is currently taking place by the Words for the World campaign to find out what the British population’s favourite words are. Among the entries submitted, there are rather unusual nominations such as “garlic”, “mayfly”, and “home”.
The campaign, organised by the charity Education Action, aims to highlight the issue of children who have been deprived of education due to war, and this fun attempt will publicise their cause. According to Education Action, almost 40 million children cannot go to school because they live in war zones, and, of course, words are essential for an education. The link may be tenuous but the intention is in the right place with the campaign asking British citizens to submit their favourite words in order to support the campaign.
Thousands of people are submitting their entries, from MPs to authors and actors, and the campaign is becoming a rapid success. Some interesting suggestions include “carminative” from Conservative MP Boris Johnson, “indefatigability” from Respect MP George Galloway, “home” from gardening celebrity Monty Don and the rather peculiar “garlic” from historian Simon Schama. Some people have chosen words due to the pure sound of them, whilst others have gone for meanings with words such as “peace” and “love”.
As Head of Development at Education Action Chris Field says of the popular campaign:
“Giving their favourite word is a great way for people to show their support for the education of all children, particularly on International Literacy Day. We’ve had some really interesting and fun results so far and look forward to seeing more.”
For those who are interested in putting forward their own favourite words, they can do so online by visiting the Education Action website.