When Ray Bradbury was asked to contribute his favourite word for the 1995 book The Logophile’s Orgy, he chose cinnamon: “The word cinnamon derives, I suppose, from visiting my grandma’s pantry when I was a kid. I loved to read the labels on spice boxes; curries from far places in India and cinnamons from across the world.”

Sometimes, if you look at an author’s cinnamon words, you can already hear their voice. Consider these three: civility, fancying, imprudence. If you guessed Austen, you are correct. These are the three words that, compared with the rest of written English, are mathematically the most used by Austen.

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