Onomatope

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O`nom´a`tope

An imitative word; an onomatopoetic word.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by G. & C. Merriam Co.

References in periodicals archive ?

Bua means 'massacre', anda serpentine inference is evoked by the sibilant onomatope 'si'.

Historicizing Edai Siabo: a contemporary argument about the pre-colonial past among the Motu-Koita of Papua New Guinea

Iversen says (ibid.) "[t]he origin of this onomatope is to be found in Greek 'karakaksa' Elster (Pasp.

Aspects of the early history of Romani

Of course I am tempted to see in the English verb 'hush: to repress the agitation or clamor of' (Webster, 1976) a lexicalized trace of the huchement, particularly as the dictionary tells us that the verb was reconstructed from a Middle English onomatope husht 'used to enjoin silence'.

At the dawn of the call: from human to animal before the division of the world

She went on to mention several musical onomatopes which the language of the Romans has bequeathed to the English tongue: murmur, susurrus, sonorous, resonant, Ulalume (made over by Poe from the Latin ululare); as well as harsh vocables like strident.