Purr

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

Genius.  A giant tom-cat.  A dragon.  The most dangerous creature in the world.  With one word, we see the absolute confidence of the dragon, the completely athletic competence and grace.  With the same word, the father takes a tiny bit of the sting of fear out of the tale.  Yet we hear the rumble of the furnace.

  • 12.011 mixed with a rumble as of a gigantic tom-cat purring.

Onomatopoeia

lfsaldenbirch , ,

I hope you have enjoyed our survey of sound play in the uncommon words!  I am charmed to learn that eighty four of the words – more than 8% of our uncommon words! – were sound-play words such as “Hum, whistle, sh”.  Many of those words are repeated, of course: they comprise 316, about one-third of 1% of the total words of the book!

The formation of a word from a sound associated with the thing or action being named; the formation of words imitative of sounds.

The use of echoic or suggestive language

I began with the idea that sound-play words would be light and funny, and that I would be able to tag and track them to identify light-hearted passages.  Then a leaf rustled and the dragon hummed.  This poetic technique quite simply adds sensation to each scene, intensifying the mood.  Sometimes Tolkien even uses the onomatopoeic words to create tone – brightening the scariest parts of his children’s bedtime tale.

Alert Word Fans will see that I captured a few more sound-play words after this post – they are included in this post’s total.

“onomatopoeia, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.

Gnash

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

I think we have danger and adventure.  There’s something biblical and epic-proportioned about “gnash”.

  • 04.033 and all his soldiers gnashed their teeth, clashed their shields,
  • 04.034 “Slash them! Beat them! Bite them! Gnash them!
  • 06.082 and gnashed their teeth;

“gnash, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.

“† gnast, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.

Frizzle

lfsaldenbirch , , , , ,

“Frizzle” in meaning one has to do with curling hair in tiny curls.  In meaning two, it has to do with cooking with an accompanying sputtering noise.  Bilbo’s hair after meeting Smaug?  Both!

  • 12.081 it had all been singed and frizzled

“frizzle, v.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.

“frizzle, v.2.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.

Bleat

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

the cry of a sheep, goat, or calf – or dwarf when lashed by a goblin.  It’s a funny farm word, ameliorating the fright of being captured by such alien and altogether scary enemies.  Low or high?  tough call.  Because it is tempering the danger with farm noises, I’m calling it “low”.

  • 04.021 Batter and beat! Yammer and bleat!
  • 04.022 and bleating like anything,

“bleat, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.

Clap

lfsaldenbirch , ,

Both a type of hit and the sound associated with it.

  • 01.095 As soon as I clapped eyes on the little fellow
  • 04.019 Clap! Snap! the black crack!
  • 04.022 The walls echoed to the clap, snap!
  • 04.023 and clapped their hands,
  • 06.005 He could have clapped
  • 07.092 Beorn clapped his hands,
  • 16.043 clapping Bilbo on the back.
  • 18.023 and broke like a clap of thunder through the ring.

Words held aside

lfsaldenbirch

As I began to make entries for individual words, I strove to find words that not just anyone would use, eliminating the Ten Thousand most common, and unique author-created names (although the specific words will change by author, authors have the privilege of creating names for their worlds), and fantasy-genre names, guessing that within the genre, those words would be like the Ten Thousand, and anyone could use them.

But what makes a fantasy word?

Lively dinner-table conversation ensued.  Did Tolkien used a word because it’s a fantasy word or is it a fantasy word because Tolkien used it?  I have a mattock in the shed, so that’s a humble word, but I classed arrows as fantasy – yet my daughter learns archery at summer camp.  The classification removed perhaps 80 words from a field of over 900.  Just a drop in the bucket.

I am no longer holding out words – like “elf” or “arrow” – which are uncommon but seem common to fantasy novel fans.

Note on June 3, 2015: If you read the blog chronologically, I have already mentioned that I held fantasy words aside, then abandoned the practice.  This post dated May 29th is the day on which I made the decision.  As of today June 3d, I edited for retroactive continuity so that new Word Fans would not be confused by changing methods.