You might be aware that I always like to have a favourite word. I’ve been putting these on Twitter (and the various other places where the feed from that appears) since – gulp – April 2009, and recently a couple of people have asked to see a full list of all my favourite words so far.

The list appears below. But since the list by itself seemed like it might make, ahem, somewhat dry reading, I figured that it might be nice to have its appearance coincide with some kind of giveaway. So here goes: vote for your ‘favourite favourite’ and you might WIN A PRIZE – namely a signed UK first edition of Tim, Defender of the Earth!

This will be the true first edition, as published in trade (ie ‘large’) paperback in January 2008 by Random House Children’s Books UK. The book – if you win – will be signed and dedicated to you or whoever you wish. I will post the book to you free of charge, wherever you are. All you have to do is the following:

Click here to go to the Crawlers Guestbook.

Click ‘Sign Guestbook’

-Tell me your Favourite Favourite.

Tell me why you think it’s the best word on the list.

Tell me how to contact you in case you win. An email address is best, but Facebook will do. NB: I edit every entry on my Guestbooks before it appears, so (barring something going wrong that’s beyond my control) any personal contact details you give me will not be publicly visible on that page: they will only be seen by me. But if you don’t leave me some way to get back to you if you’re the winner, I won’t be able to send you your prize.

THAT’S IT!

You have until Monday January 31st, 2011. The winner will be whoever I think comes up with the best answer.

OK, enough preamble. Here below – from oldest to most recent – is what you’ve got to choose from. So: Ladies and Gentlemen! By (some!) Popular Demand! I present…

All My Favourite Words Since April 23rd 2009

discombobulated, grackle, mucilage, cedilla, gizzard, vim, ruminant, cud, spry, squalid, guppy, blight, irascible, rutabaga, cloister, gristle, gawp, truckle, curmudgeon, schism, gubbins, smolt, shirty, ignition, quango, squab, macaroon, unguent, zugzwang, savage, seepage, pungent, moot, corpuscle, crepuscular, spleen, murk, plasma, lurid, salamander, pigment, glycerine, coagulant, grimace, baleful, macaque, gnaw, knurl, snood, glottal, inscrutable, clandestine, cormorant, lugubrious, scree, narthex, crimp, manacle, sphagnum, scrupulous, irk, spikenard, hawser, ellipsis, disgruntlement, lipid, mandible, shrike, fluke, insinuating, pernicious, usurper, prehensile, gelid, swarf, skulk, calamity, diminish, onslaught, oaf, tantamount, beak, mollusc, conglomerate, hispid, compunction, sloop, colossal, ventricle, mulch, baffle, spiracle, stint, nonplussed, fathom, aghast, thrive, pelt, plunge, wrack, goad, undulate, potash, snivelling, expunge, miasma, bulwark, cumbersome, tallow, smirch, gantry, buffoon, glut, torpid, asunder, mottled, palp, snit, tungsten, squeamish, tabernacle, throng, tumult, conclusive, demolish, harangue, ignominy, bamboozle, tokamak, millipede, winch, menace, lobster, scythe, mammoth, tendril, feast, marauder, morbid, slice, unutterable, cantankerous, buckle, abominable, sconce, hankering, churlish, battlement, parallax, absorb, inept, repulsive, grotesque, dreadnought, quash, yam, wretched, precipices, pulsating, bungle, furtive, ominous, soluble, dissolute, gallivanting, thole, spurious, doff, husk, hibernation, snooze, malingering, jostle, ormolu, succinct, scathed, flagrant, squamous, recalcitrant, ptarmigan, nebulous, huckster, reprehensible, stilted, griddle, plangent, quartile, broach, yolk, engrossed, propulsion, spinnaker, discrepancy, sepulchral, shoals, plenipotentiary, pulverised, clotted, agglutinated, blemish, crucible, phlegm, writhe, spindle, beware, drench, snout, cnidoblast, slathered, tangible, trifling, kibosh, jagged, nargile, turpitude, gargle, sedition, carnage, woe, maelstrom, crust, licentiousness, quaff, whelk, embezzlement, spume, incandescent, sluggishly, abolish, concussed, barnstormer, mesmerism, loathsome, misanthrope, sunk, diplomacy, hustings, tacit, hurtling, volatile, snaffle, spine, glyptodon, affront, siphon, blatant, helix, mouldering, unconscionable, malevolent, relish, ganglia, beacon, geode, gullet, dismissal, bismuth, sluice, curdled, glare, vernacular, smock, simmering, perihelion, subduction, gangplank, wince, fripperies, bluster, hence, overweening, rivet, meteor, cataplasm, marmoreal, sequestered, poltroon, scowl, recursive, nodule, trample, throaty, gargantuan, infested, upheaval, skirmish, rhinoceros, truncated, sump, sumptuous, vitriol, miscreant, turmoil, contagion, phospholipid, sidling, somnolent, marrow, cudgel, succumb, nozzle, smattering, obliterated, straggle, acrid, baulk, congeal, buffer, nucleus, lackadaisical, illicit, roost, inveigle, rife, blurt, corroborated, blear, salacious, exultant, grovel, insidious, agog, fecklessness, yawl, flummox, inimical, spool, neglect, bladderwrack, kelp, haphazard, occiput, plunder, brouhaha, wassail and shirk.

I suppose I shouldn’t be allowed to choose more favourite words until we have a winner. So, have at it! 😀