onomatopoeia

      See also onomatopœia

      English

      WOTD – 10 April 2006    
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      Wikipedia

      A sign in a shop window in Milan uses onomatopoeia.

      Alternative forms

      Etymology

      From Ancient Greek ὀνοματοποιία (onomatopoiia, “the coining of a word in imitation of a sound”), from ὀνοματοποιέω (onomatopoieo, “to coin names”), from ὄνομα (onoma, “name”) + ποιέω (poieo, “to make, to do, to produce”).

      Pronunciation

      • (RP) IPA: /ˌɒnəˌmætəˈpiə/, X-SAMPA: /%Qn@%m{t@"pi@/
      • (US) enPR: än'ə-măt'ə-pēʹə or än'ə-mät'ə-pēʹə, IPA: /ˌɑːnəˌmætəˈpiə/, /ˌɑːnəˌmɑːtəˈpiə/, X-SAMPA: /%A:n@%m{t@"pi@/, /%A:n@%mA:t@"pi@/
      • Audio (US)
        		(file)
      • Rhymes: -iə

      Noun

      onomatopoeia (countable and uncountable; plural onomatopoeias or onomatopoeiae)

      1. (uncountable) The property of a word of sounding like what it represents.
        • 1553, Thomas Wilson, Desiderius Erasmus, Arte of Rhetorique[1], Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1909:
          A woorde making called of the Grecians Onomatapoia, is when wee make wordes of our owne minde, such as bee derived from the nature of things.
      2. (countable) A word that sounds like what it represents, such as "gurgle" or "hiss".
      3. (uncountable, rhetoric) The use of language whose sound imitates that which it names.

      Synonyms

      Related terms

      Translations

      property of a word of sounding like what it represents
      word that sounds like what it represents

      See also

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      Last modified on 16 June 2013, at 17:06