Some of my recent posts have centered on arcane vocabulary words I found on a website dedicated to Moira Rose (played by Catherine O’Hara) on Schitt’s Creek. I shared two poems that included the word “habiliments” (“Clothes, especially clothing appropriate for someone's job, status, or to an occasion. Equipment or furnishings”); however, none of Dickinson’s works used the word “bombilating” (“make a buzzing, humming, or droning sound”).
Hmm…that reminds me (and did you note that I bombilated back there at the start of this remark?)...I made a post last November (HERE) about the word “susurrate” used in a book about Dickinson. At the conclusion of that post, I said this: “Dickinson never used the word ‘susurrate’ in any of her poems; however, she did use a number of synonyms for the word, including whisper, murmur and buzz – so in a day or two, I’ll explore her use of those onomatopoeic terms – but not tomorrow.”
No, back in November, on that next day, I wrote about a veritable crime spree I uncovered from the mid-1800s Amherst, MA (HERE).
Sooo…today I’m finally returning to that promise to explore Dickinson’s use of onomatopoeic terms, and I’m starting with the word “buzz.”
Hmm…(yes, I’m bombilating again)...maybe let’s start with the word “onomatopoeia” instead. That’s quite an unusual word, no? There are twelve letters in it, and eight of them are vowels, or ⅔ of the word.
I dunno – is this the word in English with the most vowels? I ran a search on “what word in the English language contains the most vowels,” but I didn’t get what I was looking for. Instead, responses focused on words with all five vowels. A bit of trivia I do know is that the word “facetious” contains all five of the vowels in alphabetical order – AND – “facetiously” adds the “sometimes ‘y.’” Now how cool is that?
Hmm…that reminds me (and did you note that I bombilated back there at the start of this remark?)...I made a post last November (HERE) about the word “susurrate” used in a book about Dickinson. At the conclusion of that post, I said this: “Dickinson never used the word ‘susurrate’ in any of her poems; however, she did use a number of synonyms for the word, including whisper, murmur and buzz – so in a day or two, I’ll explore her use of those onomatopoeic terms – but not tomorrow.”
No, back in November, on that next day, I wrote about a veritable crime spree I uncovered from the mid-1800s Amherst, MA (HERE).
Sooo…today I’m finally returning to that promise to explore Dickinson’s use of onomatopoeic terms, and I’m starting with the word “buzz.”
Hmm…(yes, I’m bombilating again)...maybe let’s start with the word “onomatopoeia” instead. That’s quite an unusual word, no? There are twelve letters in it, and eight of them are vowels, or ⅔ of the word.
I dunno – is this the word in English with the most vowels? I ran a search on “what word in the English language contains the most vowels,” but I didn’t get what I was looking for. Instead, responses focused on words with all five vowels. A bit of trivia I do know is that the word “facetious” contains all five of the vowels in alphabetical order – AND – “facetiously” adds the “sometimes ‘y.’” Now how cool is that?
Below is info related to the frequency of use of the word “onomatopoeia” (note that the word itself was not as prevalent in Dickinson’s time) and examples of its past usage. My favorite examples are from 1577, “Onomatopeia, when we inuent, deuise, fayne, and make a name, immitating the sownd of that it sygnifyeth, as hurliburly, for an uprore, and tumultuous stirre” (love the use of “hurliburly”), and both entries from 1728 and 1870, “The surest Etymologies are those deduced by the Onomatopæia” and “Without..supposing..that all our root-words have originated from onomatopœia.”
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Theories that believe human language sprang from onomatopoeic babbling and jabbering are known as bow-wow theories or cuckoo theories which include the “pooh-pooh theory, which holds that the original language consisted of interjections; and…ding-dong theory, which posits that humans were originally a kind of improved bell capable of making all sounds…(and) the ho-hiss theory, which held that grunts were also the origin of singing.” More info is HERE.
Okay, stop the presses – I just spotted something that totally astonished me. I literally uttered “Oh wow!”
I need to take a breath and figure out how to proceed. Two roads have diverged with this fellow’s words, and happy I can travel both. I just need to look down one as far as I can where it’s bent with undergrowth; however, both this morning equally lay – and knowing how way leads on to way, I just need to decide which path to take. Which will make all the difference? Hmmm.
Stay tuned.
Okay, stop the presses – I just spotted something that totally astonished me. I literally uttered “Oh wow!”
I need to take a breath and figure out how to proceed. Two roads have diverged with this fellow’s words, and happy I can travel both. I just need to look down one as far as I can where it’s bent with undergrowth; however, both this morning equally lay – and knowing how way leads on to way, I just need to decide which path to take. Which will make all the difference? Hmmm.
Stay tuned.
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