... Liam ... Midlothian ... Cthonic ... Rhiannon ...

Certain strange symbols just captivate me, and have for years. They carry an extraordinary feel, a mysterious attraction, an exotic air — but I can't quite figure out why.

Is it some particular groupings of letters (e.g., "IA") that they often seem to share? But "diary", "crucial", "mathematician", etc. don't move me, or at least not much.

Is it the way some words look on the page, like they should spell something backwards? But they don't, usually, and the special words catch my attention as much when heard as when read.

Is it a particular linguistic history? But I don't (consciously) know their background.

What is the source of these words' magic?

TopicPoetry - TopicLanguage - 2001-12-02

(correlates: BarryLawsAndPrecepts, Comments on TboltMonkeysOnMyBack, MissingSenses, ...)