The 10 favourites in alphabetical order:
Bollocks Elephant Hope Jesus Joy Puddle Quidditch Rainbow Serendipity Sex
'Strange' - that's the word that sprang to mind when Sir Bob Geldof launched the Search for the Nation's Favourite Word in May. In a year full of millennial polls and lists, this quest stood out as either the most original, or the silliest, of the lot.
But, with the winning word due to be announced next week, The Observer can reveal that 'strange' has not made it into the top 10.
In fact, 'Quidditch', the name of the school game played in the Harry Potter series of children's books, and 'serendipity', the knack of making happy discoveries by chance, are now running neck and neck in the race for the finishing line.
Shortly behind them is 'bollocks', a crude reflection, perhaps, of the fact that Geldof launched his appeal for public votes with the admission that his own favourite word was 'fuck'.
Expletives have scored well so far. 'Crap' has made many appearances, but the long succession of pious religious vocabulary nominated has helped to balance out the profanities. 'God' has been selected by a fair proportion of voters and 'Jesus' has made it high up the top 10. Organisers are unsure whether to ban or to handicap this word, however, because they believe that British members of an American evangelical church were all instructed to vote for it.
Positive and uplifting ideas such as 'hope' and 'joy' have made the top 10 and so does one of the most basic of all emotive words: 'sex'.
Over the past three months, more than 13,000 people have voted. The poll was mounted to promote the London Festival of Literature, known as The Word, which starts on 22 September at The Globe Theatre in London. Geldof is a trustee of the festival and he has called on the public to help put together a 'cultural and linguistic Domesday Book for the beginning of the new millennium' to be published this autumn.
All the proceeds from the book will support the educational programme of the festival's nominated charity, the British Dyslexia Association.
At the moment the top 10 features few of the more poetic words in the dictionary. 'Puddle' and 'elephant' both make inexplicable, but pleasingly high, entries. The word 'rainbow' has won a lot of support too.
The literary value of the exercise has been questioned by some, including the poet Tom Paulin, but he concedes: 'At least the idea reflects some interest in language. I like the old Shakespearean word "cauld" for "cold", which is still used in Northern Ireland. Or the word "miching", which means "bunking off school".'
The festival aims to provide a showcase for new writing talent as well as drawing big literary names. This year the novelists Margaret Atwood and Jay McInerney and the playwright Arthur Miller will make an appearance and the British writers Julian Barnes, John Mortimer, Colin Dexter, P. D. James, Beryl Bainbridge and Robert Harris are contributing. The Globe will host the majority of events, but Hanif Kureshi, author of The Buddha of Suburbia, and Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth, are among the writers who will visit London's outer boroughs as part of the festival.
The contest has received Government backing. Endorsing Geldof's initiative, Chris Smith, the Culture Secretary, said that his favourite word was 'together'. Spike Milligan chose 'fish', Michael Palin 'eleemosynary' (which means 'related to charity'), and Louis de Bernieres, author of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, chose 'prodigious'.
Mariella Frostrup plumped for 'comely', the playwright Willy Russell opted for 'sandwich' and Sue Lawley picked 'rotund'. Her fellow journalist and broadcaster Andrew Neil went for the pejorative slang word 'numpty'.
Among more high-minded selections were Professor Steve Jones's choice of 'malacologist' (a student of molluscs) and the word 'moral' from Rabbi Julia Neuberger. Jeffrey Archer chose 'energy', Sue Townsend 'little', Will Self 'nausea' and Helen Fielding points out that her favourite word 'singleton', made famous by her fictional character Bridget Jones, was not created by her, but by P. G. Wodehouse.
