Foxes simper. What does the word simper mean?

Factual Questions
1

Hi

Foxes– bark, yelp, simper. I haven’t been able to find a definition for “simper” as a sound online. What kind of a sound is simper?

see: List of animal sounds - Wikipedia

I look forward to your feedback.
davidmich

2

I couldn’t find any definition of the sound “simpering” but I did come across this. Apparently Prince can simper.

Prince sang almost all of his 1986 smash hit Kiss in a simpering, short-breathed falsetto, but nobody said (as yet another British critic has said of Thorpe) that he had been “beamed in from outer space.”

3

I’m not familiar with any definition of simper that involves sound. My memory and various online dictionaries say that it means a silly or insincere smile or smirk.

4

I’m only going by what Wikipedia says on its website. I had never heard of “simper” in terms of a sound before.
davidmich

5

#1) If you come across something on Wikipedia that sounds odd or off, it may be because Wiki editors are often talking out of their arses.

#2) If the only cite you can find for a given statement or term is Wikipedia, see #1.

6

Hi,

I’ve looked for the following sounds (List of animal sounds - Wikipedia) and can’t trace them at all:

  1. “maw” of llamas and

  2. “hrow” (misspelling?) of anteaters.

  3. Still no luck on “simpering” of foxes.
    I look forward to your feedback.
    davidmich

7

Pretty sure foxes say “RING A DING DING DING DING DA DING!”

8

The OED lists one of the definitions of ‘simper’ as ‘whimper.’ No mentions about fox sounds, though.

9

The OED has a couple of 19th-century citations for *simper *meaning “whimper” (dialectal) or “to utter with a simper,” but I think it’s safe to say that foxes do not simper.

10

Thanks Earl Snake-Hips Tucker. Very helpful. .
davidmich

11

As an uttered sound, it would be a sound that a listener would interpret, in a human being, by analogy, as reflecting a sentiment that a visual “simper” would also elicit

English is very good at the use of those kinds of expressions, since parts of speech are not rigidly legislated by the rules of English.

12

apparently foxes do whimper and whine.

http://www.ask.com/question/what-noises-do-foxes-make

13

The difference between Land Foxes and Marine Foxes is that the latter say simper fidelus.

14

Have you had any trouble with “woof” for dogs or “meow” for cats or “moo” for cows? They seen neither more nor less intuitive than “maw” for llamas.

15

Is “maw” onomatopoeic then? Perhaps.

16

Perhaps “maw” like “moo”. It says on various websites llamas sound like cows but at a much higher pitch.

17

You can’t find them because “maw” and “hrow” aren’t real words in English (at least with respect to the sounds of animals). Probably someone at some point has used them as onomatopoeic descriptive words for these calls and Wiki somehow got hold of them.

Here’s allama calling.You can judge for yourself if it sounds like “maw.”

Here’s an anteater calling.It actually could be described as a “hrow.”

“Simpering” also doesn’t describe a specific call. It’s probably being used to describe a soft chuckling sound.

18

The fox who makes noises in my back yard says “yip yip”. He sounds like a high-pitched dog.

19

Just to pre-empt this,a fox does NOT say:

Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!

Or:

Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!

Or:

Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho!

Or:

Joff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff!
:wink:

20

I have the Shorter OED to hand:

I’m guessing #4 here, though the expression the fox makes when uttering the sound may relate to #1.