HUM
Wild Word Friday!
HUM is one of those glorious onomatopoeic words that is an imitation of the sound it describes. The earliest form of HUM that we know of – onomatopoeic words can have very obscure localized origins – comes from the Middle English hummen, which almost makes your mouth vibrate when you say it.
One of the older musical instruments around, the jaw harp, takes advantage of our human ability to HUM and magnifies the sound by using our mouth as a sound chamber and a metal tab to give the HUM a spronging sound.
Okay, so sprong is a made up word – not mine because I’ve heard other people say it – but isn’t it a great example of how we come up with words that imitate sounds? Maybe someday sprong will wind up in our dictionaries! The world would be all the richer for it.
Any other new onomatopoeic words out there? Share them with us!
Blessings!
Sue
(Some information from WEBSTER’S NEW WORLD DICTIONARY OF THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE. Photo from Wikipedia.)
As a huge fan of onomatopoeia, “spronging” made me laugh out loud! Love this, Sue.
“Squooch” is one of my favorites. It’s the sound the right boot makes in the mud puddle. The left boot conforms more to society’s norms, emitting a mere “squish.” But when you have a rebel right boot like I do, you get a wonderful “squish, squooch” when you slog through mud. And at this time of year around here, that’s pretty often! What fun! 🙂
Squooch! You’re right! It’s the perfect word for the right boot in mud!