Britain's favourite word is love, actually

Britain's three favourite words are love, serendipity and family, according to a charity effort to build a "wall of words".

Telecommunications giant BT and children's charity I CAN have already built a mile long "wall" from thousands of online submissions to their Internet site www.wallofwords.org.uk and are hoping to complete a second mile.

Visitors to the Web site submit their favourite word and the reasons why. The wall is made from virtual bricks represented by each word submitted. BT has already donated 50,000 pounds to I CAN on completion of the first mile and is offering prizes to contributors for the second mile.

It's not surprising that a nation which has seen a lot of slate grey skies over the winter chose sunshine as its fourth most favourite word or that a people famed for their stiff upper lips chose smile as number 6 and happy as number 10.

"It's heart-warming to see that, despite all our daily pressures and worries, so many positive emotional words are turning up in this list. It seems we're not just a romantic people - we're playful too," linguist David Crystal, an honorary professor at the University of Bangor in Wales, said in an I CAN press statement released on Tuesday.

Although love was the top choice overall and the number one choice for women, antidisestablishmentarianism was the top choice for men and the ninth most favourite word on the list.

Regionally, Welsh contributors favoured the word "cwtch" (cuddle) and Scots favoured "numpty" (an abbreviation of "numbskull").

英国一项建造“词语墙”的慈善活动发现，爱、意外的发现和家庭三个词在英国最受青睐。

通讯业巨头英国电信和儿童慈善机构I CAN根据用户在活动网站www.wallofwords.org.uk上提交的几千个词语，建造了一道长达1英里的“词语墙”，目前他们希望能完成第二个英里的建造。

用户可登陆活动网站提交他们最喜爱的词语，并说明原因。这道“词语墙”由虚拟砖块砌成，每块砖都是一个被提交的词语。英国电信已为第一个英里“词语墙”的建造向I CAN 慈善组织捐助了5万英镑，目前正向第二英里词语的提供者发放奖品。

对于一个整个冬天都被笼罩在灰蒙蒙的天空下的国家来说，“阳光”成为第四个最受喜爱的词并不令人惊讶；对于不苟言笑的英国人来说，“微笑”一词名列第六、“快乐”一词名列第十也很正常。

威尔士班戈大学的名誉教授、语言学家大卫·克里斯托在本周二ＩCAN 慈善机构发表的一份新闻声明中说：“尽管我们在日常生活中面临很多压力和烦恼，但很多具有积极感情色彩的词语出现在了最受喜爱的词语之列，这让人很高兴。这也说明我们不仅是个浪漫的民族，而且懂得幽默。”

“爱”一词名列最受喜爱词语排行榜之首，同时也是女性的最爱，但“主张教会分离者”一词则为男性的首选，并在总排行榜上名列第九。

从各地区来看，威尔士人最喜欢“拥抱”一词，而苏格兰人则最喜爱“笨蛋”一词。

Vocabulary:

heart-warming:causing gladness and tender feelings（感人的；令人高兴的）