Say the words “cellar door.” Do your lips pulse with pleasure? Does your tongue swell with pride? Are you choking on your swollen lips and tongue?
If you’re to believe a large bloc of linguists and writers, then you should be, according to an article in the New York Times Magazine. The article by Grant Barrett traces the history of the phrase “cellar door” and how, through novel references and linguist speeches, it became known as, arguably, the most beautifully harmonious pair of words in the English language.
The first reference to the dynamic declarative duo is reported to be from the 1903 novel Gee-Boy by Cyrus Lauron, a passage of which reads: “He even grew to like sounds unassociated with their meaning, and once made a list of the words he loved most, as doubloon, squadron, thatch, fanfare (he never did know the meaning of this one), Sphinx, pimpernel, Caliban, Setebos, Carib, susurro, torquet, Jungfrau. He was laughed at by a friend, but logic was his as well as sentiment; an Italian savant maintained that the most beautiful combination of English sounds was cellar-door; no association of ideas here to help out! sensuous impression merely! the cellar-door is purely American.”
Later, in the ‘50s, fantasy author of Lord of the Rings and respected linguist, J.R.R. Tolkien, remarked about the words’ intrinsic loveliness in a speech. From then on, the words popped up in poets’ poems, musicians’ songs and writers’ books with great frequency.
Yet not everyone is sold on the cellar. In Santa Cruz, we checked with resident poet and hopeless word junkie Stephen Kessler who knocks on cellar door, as overrated.
“To me it lacks a certain magnetic quality that other words have,” says Kessler. “There are so many interesting words in English that both sound good and have an image that’s more provocative than a cellar door. I wrote a poem recently about the Afghan city Jalalabad. To me, that’s a great word.”
Kessler says the last time he analyzed words on a micro level was during a “mind altering” experience in the ‘60s. In that state, he says, pulling apart words for their individual components was both intriguing and useful. Without drugs, however, Kessler sees the whole idea as rather trivial.
On the other hand, famed winemaker and all around unique character, Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyard, thinks the words have a “wonderful cadence.” They’d better, after all, he named his new and impressive, wood-planked cafe, connected to his Ingalls Street wine tasting room, the Cellar Door Cafe. It wasn’t the words’ reputation that lead to the cafe’s moniker, however, as Grahm says it wasn’t until he read the Times piece that he realized the phrase was so celebrated.
“The name, I guess, turned out to be an accident,” he says. “Not until I saw the article did it even register. What I was going for is creating an intimate portal to a private place. To me the words have a sense of coziness, warmth and intimacy. Sometimes I think the name is too generic, but it does have a wonderful sound to it.”
Read the New York Times Magazine article on cellar door here.
