“Bang,” “pow” and “woof” are, at least in English. But how about words which are evocative without trying to sound like the noise they describe? I’m thinking specifically of “awkward” and “grotesque,” which somehow seem like what they mean.
And what are some of your favorite examples of these kinds of words?
I don’t know if it exactly fits, but “ideophone” may be close to what you want. (In general, you should look into the idea of “sound symbolism”)
I don’t think there’s really any comparison here. Awkward and grotesque ‘sounding’ like what they are is strictly an after-the-fact emotional imposition.
Almost any unpleasant word will fit the bill: pus, scumbag, bunghole etc.
For what its worth, my favourite word fitting this category is RUDE.
Yes, I guess sound symbolism is just about what I have in mind. Thanks.
Any other words fit this category for my fellow Dopers?
This is only tangentially related but might be of some interest. A scientist (possibly a cognitive psychologist) conducted a study to see how people associate sounds with perception. He made up two words and showed people two drawings, and asked them to associate the words to the pictures. The associations were remarkably consistent and it didn’t matter what the native language of the subject was. I can’t remember the words he made up but one had a couple of “k” sounds in it, and was usually associated with the picture of spiky-looking objects. The other word was associated with the picture of soft, cloud-like objects.
So certain sounds can subtly evoke an image, even in the absence of semantics.
Aha! Here is an articleabout it. Not sure how long it will be available for free.
A great counter-example would be the word pulchritude.
Ugly word, means beauty.
I recall seeing in a dictionary that the etymology of blob was given as “imitative”
I can sort of see it, but I’m at a loss to say exactly how “blob” is imitative of BLOB. Perhaps it’s really onomatopoeiea, and I’m imagining the sound of something being squeezed out of a tube and making a sound like “blob”.
Bonus statement: Why isn’t “onomatopoeia” an onomatopoeia? It doesn’t sound like anything, and if any word should, you’d think it was onomatopoeia. And why the heck do we use such an odd, oddly=spelled, and clear far-from-standard-english word as "onomatopoeia’ to describe what is a pretty common observation?
I think mellifluous sounds nice but thinking about it, it could go the other way. Like effluvium which is stinky.
It doesn’t help that some words show up in color in my head too.
Why should it be? “long” isn’t very long, “monosyllabic” isn’t monosyllabic, “adjective” isn’t an adjective… The word “monkey” is not, itself, a monkey…
And it’s just wrong that the word “lisp” has an “s” in it.
And as George Costanza pointed out, “manure” is a lovely word.