English edit

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A sign in a shop window in Milan using onomatopoeia for a clock

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ὀνοματοποιία (onomatopoiía, the coining of a word in imitation of a sound), from ὀνοματοποιέω (onomatopoiéō, to coin names), from ὄνομα (ónoma, name) + ποιέω (poiéō, to make, to do, to produce).

Pronunciation edit

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌɒnəˌmætəˈpiːə/
  • (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˌɒnəˌmɛtəˈpæɪə/
  • (US) enPR: än'ə-măt'ə-pēʹə or än'ə-mät'ə-pēʹə, IPA(key): /ˌɑnəˌmætəˈpiːə/, /ˌɑnəˌmɑtəˈpiːə/
  • (US, chiefly Midwestern) IPA(key): /ˌɑnəˌmɑnəˈpiːə/
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  • Rhymes: -iːə

Noun edit

onomatopoeia (countable and uncountable, plural onomatopoeias or onomatopoeiae)

  1. (uncountable) The property of a word that sounds 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", "stutter", or "hiss".
    1. (countable) A word that appropriates a sound for another sensation or a perceived nature, such as "thud", "beep", or "meow"; an ideophone, phenomime.
  3. (uncountable, rhetoric) The use of language whose sound imitates that which it names.

Synonyms edit

Related terms edit

Translations edit

See also edit

Latin edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

From the Ancient Greek ὀνομᾰτοποιῐ́ᾱ (onomatopoiíā).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

onomatopoeia f (genitive onomatopoeiae); first declension

  1. (rhetoric) onomatopoeia (the forming of a word to resemble in sound the thing that it signifies)

Declension edit

First-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative onomatopoeia onomatopoeiae
Genitive onomatopoeiae onomatopoeiārum
Dative onomatopoeiae onomatopoeiīs
Accusative onomatopoeiam onomatopoeiās
Ablative onomatopoeiā onomatopoeiīs
Vocative onomatopoeia onomatopoeiae

Descendants edit

References edit

  • ŏnŏmătŏpoeïa”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • ŏnŏmătŏpœĭa in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 1,080/2
  • onomatopoeia”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • onomatopoeia” on page 1,250/1 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (1st ed., 1968–82)