

Apr 22, 2013 This week's theme

Onomatopoeic words



This week's words

bombilate

fanfaron

cachinnate

fillip

brouhaha



Have your say

in our discussion forum

Wordsmith Talk Onomatopoeic wordsin our discussion forum A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg



Bees buzz, clocks go tick-tock, and train engines hiss (or used to). Where there's sound there is onomatopoeia -- our interpretation of the sound in the form of a word (from Greek onoma: name + poiein: to make). This week we'll see five words coined by imitating the supposed sound of what is being described. bombilate PRONUNCIATION: (BOM-bi-layt)

MEANING: verb intr.: To make a humming or buzzing noise.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin bombilare to (hum, buzz). Earliest documented use: 1600s.

USAGE: "The entire building was bombilating like a cicada."

Matt Cantor; Some Cures for Noisy Neighbors; The Berkeley Daily Planet (California); Oct 9, 2008.

See more usage examples of bombilate in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.



A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Society is like a lawn, where every roughness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where the eye is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface; he, however, who would study nature in its wildness and variety, must plunge into the forest, must explore the glen, must stem the torrent, and dare the precipice. -Washington Irving, writer (1783-1859)





We need your help



Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere



Donate