A.Word.A.Day --tintinnabulation

A.Word.A.Day

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Jun 9, 2011

This week's theme
Onomatopoeic words

This week's words
claque
ululate
susurrus
tintinnabulation
cockalorum

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

tintinnabulation

PRONUNCIATION:

(tin-ti-nab-yuh-LAY-shuhn)

MEANING:

noun: The ringing of or the sound of bells.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin tintinnabulum (bell), from tintinnare (to ring, jingle), reduplication of tinnire (to ring), of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1831, in Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Bells.

USAGE:

"Abigail gazed to the sea where splashing surf sounded like the tintinnabulation of a thousand tiny bells." (a contest entry by Andrew Bowers)
Ana Samways; Sideswipe; The New Zealand Herald (Auckland); Aug 19, 2008.

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

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives. -William C. Dement, professor of psychiatry (b. 1928)

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