A.Word.A.Day --gnar

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Nov 28, 2016

This week’s theme
Onomatopoeic words

This week’s words
gnar
cackle
susurrate
blubber
chunter

Photo: Alex Turton

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

What does a zipper have in common with a buzz saw? Or flip-flops with a tuk-tuk (auto rickshaw)?

All of them are named after the sounds they make. Of course, the same sound can be interpreted differently by different people. But this is how English speakers interpreted the sounds made by these objects or actions.

This week we’ll look at five words that are coined by onomatopoeia, which is the formation of a word from the sound it represents (from Greek onomatopoiia, literally “making of words”).

gnar or gnarr

PRONUNCIATION:

(nar)

MEANING:

verb intr.: To snarl or growl.

ETYMOLOGY:

Of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1496.

USAGE:

“‘Watch your tongue, Hreidar,’ Moldof gnarred, ‘unless you want to dig your own burial mound with it.’”
Giles Kristian; Winter’s Fire; Transworld; 2016.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

One law for the lion and ox is oppression. -William Blake, poet, engraver, and painter (28 Nov 1757-1827)

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