"onomatopoeia"

Definition:

The formation or use of words (such as hiss or murmur) that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. Adjective: onomatopoeic.

Etymology:

From the Latin, "to make names"

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Examples and Observations:

• "Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs ringing clear;
  Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear?
  Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,
  The highwayman came riding,
  Riding, riding!
  The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still!"
  (Alfred Noyes, "The Highwayman")



• "The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
  And murmuring of innumerable bees."
  (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Come Down, O Maid")



• "I'm getting married in the morning!
  Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime."
  (Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, "Get Me to the Church on Time," from My Fair Lady)



• "One of these days, Alice. Pow! Right in the kisser!"
  (Jackie Gleason, The Honeymooners)



• "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is."
  (Advertising slogan of Alka Seltzer)



• "Klunk! Klick! Every trip"
  (U.K. promotion for seat belts)



• "Bang! went the pistol,
  Crash! went the window
  Ouch! went the son of a gun.
  Onomatopoeia--
  I don't want to see ya
  Speaking in a foreign tongue.
  (John Prine, "Onomatopoeia")



• "I once heard Stuart Hall on Sports Report covering a match at Barnsley. 'Barnsley,' he said, 'is onomatopoeic.' By which he presumably meant to imply that he found Barnsley to be a barnsley kind of a place. That's not onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia occurs when a word sounds like what it describes, as in buzz or splash."
  (David McKie, "Will It Play in Aporia?" The Guardian, April 7, 2005)



• "[Aredelia] found Starling in the warm laundry room, dozing against the slow rump-rump of a washing machine."
  (Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs)

Pronunciation: ON-a-MAT-a-PEE-a