Why this word is great
HOUYHNHNM — [Noun] One of a fictional race of exceptionally civilized, rational horses who rule over the brutish Yahoos in Jonathan Swift's *Gulliver's Travels*. Coined by Swift in 1726 as an onomatopoeic imitation of a horse's whinny (cf. 'whinny'), humorously representing the Houyhnhnms' language. Unlike a *centaur* (which marries human intellect to equine form) or a *Yahoo* (which embodies humanity's basest instincts), the Houyhnhnm is a paradox: a creature of pure reason in the body of a grazing beast. Picture their orderly pastures, where debates unfold in measured neighs; their disdain for human folly, as palpable as the stench of Yahoos; their cold perfection, as unsettling as a chessboard in a world of flesh. They are reason made flesh—or rather, reason made hoof—and in their flawless society, we see our own failings reflected with terrible clarity.