Onomatopoeia

[UniqueFD]

I've just heard the word [red]Chortle[/red] in conversation :-D! As it put a smile on my face (it's just such a lovely, oldie-worldie, innocently funny word to describe the sound), I thought I'd share it.

And I began wondering if anyone else could think of some other great 'words that imitate the sound they represent', for a chuckle.



Tony
___________________________________________________
Reckless words pierce like a sword,
but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Solomon)

 

[Thadeus]

squish is pretty good at sounding just what it means.

pop!

slurp

Screech

~Thadeus

 

[AngelB]

Similar to squish, I like 'squelch'


Geraint

Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable, let's prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all

 

[KenCunningham]

I like 'fizzle'.

Phut.

 

[Turkbear]

Hi,
and then there is 'plop'

( Remember 'plop,plop,fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is'?)





To Paraphrase:"The Help you get is proportional to the Help you give.."

 

[KenCunningham]

Someone got a hangover, Turkbear?


BANG!!

 

[sbudzynski]

Anyone seen the new underarmour commercials with my boy Vernon Davis??


Click! Clack!

--------------------------------------
Steve

Don't Be :-(

 

[Trevoke]

squash, crack, boom, crash, splash, growl, hum...

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"

 

[j0ckser]

meow

per ardua ad astra

 

[sleipnir214]

I've long been convinced that "snicker-snack" (as in "The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!" from Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky") is onomatopoetic.


But then again, I've also long maintained that a pizza, when slid upside down from its delivery box onto linoleum, makes the sound "pizza", which makes that word onomatopoetic, too.



Want the best answers? Ask the best questions! TANSTAAFL!

 

[2ffat]

You guys are funny! Snort, snort.


James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
^{I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!}

 

[tsdragon]

I believe the word "chortle" was also invented by Lewis Carroll in "Jabberwocky". It has long been one of my favorite words too.

I used to use the word "squnchy" to describe cooked mushrooms. A cross between squishy and crunchy.

Other onomatopoeiac words: flush, crack, slam, thud, squeak, thump, snap, crackle, pop, tee hee, cough, click, whirr, tsk, ding, dong, clang.

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[BoxHead]

flit
twang
zip
hoot
whack

__________________________
UniqueFD,

I've always loved the word chortle, but until your post, I've only heard it once before. And I've always pronounced it "chortle-chortle-chortle".

Many, many years ago Loudon Wainwright was singing his "Suicide Song" on Saturday Night Live (details are fuzzy - it was the 70's).

Lyrics were along the lines of "You don't love me and I don't know what to do... I'll kill myself and then the laugh will be on you... Hah, hah, hah... hee, hee, hee... giggle, giggle, giggle... chortle, chortle, chortle... [tt]and my personal favorite[/tt] Guffaw, guffaw, guffaw"

John


Life is short.
Build something.

 

[Arnobis]

Um sorry TSDragon but is Flush really onomatopaeic??

 

[sbudzynski]

I think Flush is, because it sounds like what it is describing.

Atleast to me it does.


----------

Steve Budzynski


"So, pass another round around for the kids. Who have nothing left to lose and for those souls old and sold out by the soles of my shoes"

 

[Trevoke]

This is a little (very) off-topic, but it's all about sounds, so I thought I would share it with those of you who didn't know it yet. It's a small poem, author unknown, about computers..

<> !*''#
^"`$$-
!*=@$_
%*<> ~#4
&[]../
|{,,SYSTEM HALTED

The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit:

Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.


__________________
As far as onomatopeias go, 'hiss' as well as any other "animal sound" like woof, moo, etc.

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"

 

[mmerlinn]

Trevoke

If it weren't for a few subtle differences, I would have thought that you got that off of one of my webpages that I put up on 9 Sep 1998.


mmerlinn

"Political correctness is the BADGE of a COWARD!"

 

[Trevoke]

That's possible. On 9 sept 1998 I had been in the US for less than a month and, in addition, I didn't know the Internet very well. I found this poem one or two years ago, but I do not remember well. I'll gladly give you credit for the original if you show it to me

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"

 

[SilentAiche]

Um sorry TSDragon but is Flush really onomatopaeic??

Not really. Sometimes you still have to flip the handle.

Tim


[blue]________________________________________________________
"To be rather than to seem" - Official Motto of the State of North Carolina[/blue]

 

[tsdragon]

I thought it was onomatopaeic. Mad magazine used to use:

furglursk! gurgle, lurgle, lurgle, GALOOK!

for the same function.

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.