According to several surveys held over the years, the words people consider to be their most favourites of all times seem to relate one way or another to individual experiences. Especially positive words of encouragment.

However, the word Mother came top as the most beautiful word of the English language, by over 40,000 people from 102 different countries when polls were carried out to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the British Council during 2002.

Closely following in the popularity stakes came the delights of passion, smile, love and eternity but surprisingly enough the word father did not feature in the top 70 favourite English words. Nonetheless there are some unusual words such as flabbergasted, hen night, oi and peek-a-boo, and some trendy words such as des res which were also successful in reaching high up places in the poll.

The words, classy, discern, discerning and worldly also received a worthy mention, although overall it is quite clear that many of the top words of encouragement could be described as of a more positive and powerful nature.

Taking a more detailed look at the word Mother being the most popular word chosen by people from countries other than the United Kingdom, the question has to be asked that had the survey being taken within the UK, would the word Mother have been up there in the number one spot? A spokesperson for the British Council commented on how diverse the English language is turning out to be.

Many words which proved to be popular were in regard to people's hopes and dreams, whilst other words which did not convey any real meaning but were well-liked, such as oi, were obviously the favourite of many people taking part in the survey. It was clear from the results of the survey that words like aplomb, breast, bulge, chasm, ebullient, flesh, loin, panties, prism, probe, pungent, terrorists, thrust, viscous, and war were definitely at the bottom of the list of popular words of the English language.

The English language is promoted as a subject of study by the British Council in countries all over the world. It is a universal language and for whatever the reason people learn it, for example, to use whilst on holiday in an English speaking country or to be able to communicate in English for work purposes, there are approximately 500.000 people studying the language each year.

For this reason the poll to find the favourite words of the English language which will be carried out in 2034 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the British Council should make for very interesting reading. The least popular words could well be big brother and pop idol.

However, we can also expect to see words of encouragement like well done, cushdi, pukka and sorted, along with other likely words such as carbon footprint and gay, the latter of which was originally used to describe a happy state of humanity, up there in the top results of the survey. Yes gay was at one time the most used word of encouragement to express a happy disposition.

Of course threr will be new words by then according to the online Oxford dictionary, as many as 5ooo new words may appear in the next 25 years.

Derek has been using words of encouragement for. His favourite words come from the Oxford dictionary online. His favourite words are law of abundance. Whats yours? http://www.wordly.eu/