The snow removal guys arrived at breakfast time to blow the snow off the front steps. I asked the people across the table how much snow we had received during the night and the answer was, “A skiff.”
To me the word “skiff” sounds like what it means, a fitting description of dry snow slipping across the ground, dusting the frozen street. In primary school grammar class we learned about onomatopoeia which are sound words … words that sound like the thing to which they refer. I often find onomatopoeia in poetry (e.g. Twas the night before Christmas … when out on the lawn there arose such a clatter…) but we use sound words in everyday speech too.
Some of the words we use to describe events sound like the things they describe, adding poetry to our everyday conversation. For example, we crunch along the snowy sidewalk; we slosh through the slush when the snow melts in the spring. When the sun warms the snow on the roof it plops off the eaves. The icicles drip, drip, drip in the warming January sun.
The word “onomatopoeia” comes from the combination of two Greek words, onoma meaning “name” and poiein meaning “to make”, so onomatopoeia literally mean “to make a name (or sound).”
Onomatopoeia paint a word picture. There are lots of sound words for poets to use but what if we made up some words, perhaps for comic effect? I am sure you can do better, but here are a few examples off the top of my head.
- Bosh: A very posh bash.
- Lingle: The sound that continues in my ears after ringing bellse at the Salvation Army kettle.
- Fuffle: The muffled sound of fat snowflakes falling on a windless day.
No doubt you can come up with much better madeup sound words. To get you started, here are some examples from The Washington Post. Each year the newspaper holds a contest where readers are invited to take any word from the dictionary altered by adding, subtracting or changing one letter and supplying a new definition. • Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money in the first place.
- Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
- Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
- Decafhalon: The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
- Beelzebug: Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
- Caterpallor: The colour you change when you discover half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.
