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"|
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)


