In case you might need a refresher from high school English class, Onomatopoeia is one of those figures of speech that pops up in poetry and jokes and the like.
There’s an associated term – mellifluous – for generally pleasant sounding words and phrases, such as cellar door (by somebody’s reckoning that I heard about long ago).
Help me think of some unusual examples of these words and poetic devices as heard (or seen) in songs, poetry, everyday speech and so on.
And help me find the name of the same sort of effect that such a word as smegma or phlegm may conjure up – at the opposite end of the pleasant scale.
Names of people can sometimes be quite exemplary of these devices. If you can think of some of those, please share.
I’m a little unclear about exactly what you’re asking for. Do you want:
Words that are onomatopoeic or mellifluous
Examples of phrases or sentences using such words
Something else
One almost-never-used word that is highly onomatopoeic and perhaps might also be considered mellifluous: susurrus.
And one that is highly onomatopoeic but not mellifluous: borborygmus.
Onomatopoeia doesn’t refer to whether a word is pleasant-sounding or not. It refers to a word that sounds like the thing it represents. “Hiss” is a good example, as is “gargle.”
No specific limitations. Just whatever strikes your fancy about the “words that sound like what they mean” or thereabouts.
I was hoping we could improve on the basic group of
clang
splat
boing
plop
screech
with some more colorful and less common ones, even if we have to make them up.
One of may all-time favorites was in the BC comic strip when the anteater would get himself an ant morsel. The sound-effect in the panel would be, “Zot!”
I met a young woman in the Middle East, who was living there with her British family working overseas for an NGO. I asked he if she had learned any Arabic. She said No, it doesn’t make sense. None of the Arabic words sound like what they mean. To her, all English words are onomatopoeic.
