You searched for: “onomatopy
onomatopy
1. In grammar and rhetoric, a figure in which words are formed to resemble the sound made by the thing signified; such as, to buzz, as bees; to crackle, as burning thorns or brush.
2. A word whose sound corresponds to the sound of the thing signified.

It has been maintained by some philologists that all primary words, especially names, were formed by imitation of natural sounds.

This entry is located in the following unit: onomato-, onoma-, onomo-, onom-, ono- (page 2)