On-o-mat-o-poe-ia! One-to-ma-to-pizza! I-am-gonna-pay-ya! I love the word, and can\u2019t resist playing with it. It comes from Greek and means \u2018word making\u2019. Onomatopoeia imitates in sound the thing it describes, and because it uses musical effects it\u2019s perfect for poetry. Children make new words using it: quack quack, bow wow, moo cow, brmm-brmm, and nee-naw is an excellent word for a fire engine.<\/p>\n
Widely used in primitive language, it\u2019s at the root of many English words, words like wind, owl, cuckoo, sizzle. A snake hisses and slithers, like the sound of its voice and movement in sand or grass. In parts of south-west Britain plimsolls are known as daps, so \u2018Get your daps on!\u2019 means \u2018Hurry!\u2019 No poet uses onomatopoeia throughout a poem, and most would be unconscious of using it most of the time.<\/p>\n
I can spot examples in \u2018The Field Mouse\u2019 where sound suggests meaning. It happens in words like \u2018summer\u2019, \u2018hums\u2019, \u2018drum\u2019, \u2018crushed\u2019, \u2018rumour\u2019, and in a phrase like \u2018stammering with gunfire\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On-o-mat-o-poe-ia! One-to-ma-to-pizza! I-am-gonna-pay-ya! I love the word, and can\u2019t resist playing with it. It comes from Greek and means \u2018word making\u2019. Onomatopoeia imitates in sound the thing it describes, and because it uses musical effects it\u2019s perfect for poetry. Children make new words using it: quack quack, bow wow, moo cow, brmm-brmm, and nee-naw is… Continue reading Onomatopoeia<\/span>