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ksmithSo M-W's Word of the Day is "onomatopoeia". After the formal definition and this and that came the little essay, which reads as follows:
Did you know?
Onomatopoeia came into English via Late Latin, but the word "onomatopoeia" traces back to the Greek "onoma," meaning "name," and "poiein," meaning "to make." ("Onoma" can be found in such terms as "onomastics," which refers to the study of proper names and their origins, while "poiein" gave us such words as "poem" and "poet.") English speakers have only used the word "onomatopoeia" since the late 1500s, but people have been creating words from the sounds heard around them for much longer. In fact, the presence of so many imitative words in language spawned the linguistic bowwow theory, which postulates that language originated in imitation of natural sounds.
"linguistic bowwow theory"???
Did you know?
Onomatopoeia came into English via Late Latin, but the word "onomatopoeia" traces back to the Greek "onoma," meaning "name," and "poiein," meaning "to make." ("Onoma" can be found in such terms as "onomastics," which refers to the study of proper names and their origins, while "poiein" gave us such words as "poem" and "poet.") English speakers have only used the word "onomatopoeia" since the late 1500s, but people have been creating words from the sounds heard around them for much longer. In fact, the presence of so many imitative words in language spawned the linguistic bowwow theory, which postulates that language originated in imitation of natural sounds.
"linguistic bowwow theory"???
