low

Squeak

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Things which squeak are obviously either funny or contemptible.  Another “low” tag for an onomatopoeia word.

  • 01.063 while the hobbit ran after them almost squeaking with fright:
  • 01.110 squeaked Bilbo
  • 02.050 oo are you?” it squeaked,
  • 05.087 How it squeaked!
  • 05.111 when we twisted that nassty young squeaker.
  • 12.073 in a frightened squeak,
  • 13.010 he squeaked aloud.
  • 13.023 He squeaked
  • 13.028 or he would not go on squeaking.’
  • 16.033 squeaked Bilbo.
  • 17.013 squeaked Bilbo,

Splutter

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

The Chapter 16 instance of “splutter” occurs when Bilbo stumbles and falls into a stream on his super-silent mission to reach Bard without the dwarves’ knowledge.  Definitely a funny bit of slapstick.  Johnson (of “Boswell’s Life of___” fame) called this a low word, and I’ll happily take that evidence.

  • 05.041 and spluttered.
  • 05.073 and spluttered
  • 08.109 so now they all began to splutter
  • 08.123 and spluttered
  • 09.055 He came up again spluttering
  • 16.017 shivering and spluttering,

“splutter, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

Hiss

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

Gollum hisses – definitely low.  Spiders hiss – definitely low.  Dwarves hiss in a stumbling about scene, also tagged “low”.  In Chapter 14, however, the hisses are of dragon-fired arrows and bits of building falling into the lake.  Same word, much more weighty feeling.  I shall have to find a way to tag those two instances as “high”.

  • 05.014 and hissed:
  • 05.016 when the hiss came
  • 05.022 Sssss’ said Gollum,
  • 05.025 So Gollum hissed:
  • 05.032 he hissed.
  • 05.036 Ss, ss, ss,’ said Gollum.
  • 05.036 Ss, ss, ss,’ said Gollum.
  • 05.036 Ss, ss, ss,’ said Gollum.
  • 05.036 Sss, sss, my preciouss,
  • 05.036 Sss, sss, my preciouss,
  • 05.041 He hissed to himself,
  • 05.043 my preciouss – ss – ss.’
  • 05.043 my preciouss – ss – ss.’
  • 05.045 teaching his grandmother to suck – ‘Eggses!’ he hissed.
  • 05.048 After a while Gollum began to hiss
  • 05.064 not fair!’ he hissed.
  • 05.066 S-s-s-s-s,’ hissed Gollum.
  • 05.066 S-s-s-s-s,’ hissed Gollum.
  • 05.070 S-s-s-s-s,’ said Gollum
  • 05.073 He hissed
  • 05.082 hissed Gollum.
  • 05.097 Then suddenly out of the gloom came a sharp hiss.
  • 05.101 The sound came hissing louder
  • 05.105 he heard the hiss loud behind him,
  • 05.106 The hiss was close behind him.
  • 05.109 curse it!’ hissed Gollum.
  • 05.117 Ssss, sss, gollum!
  • 05.117 Ssss, sss, gollum!
  • 05.120 hissing
  • 05.124 Ssss!’
  • 05.127 He hissed softly but menacingly.
  • 05.130 There was a hissing
  • 07.101 The grasses hissed, their tassels bent,
  • 08.081 and hissing,
  • 08.085 hissed a fourth;
  • 08.091 hissed the angry spider climbing back onto the branch.
  • 08.109 and hiss:
  • 08.123 and hissed out horrible curses;
  • 13.016 Sh! sh!’ they hissed,
  • 14.013 and hissing into the lake.
  • 14.024 There was a hiss,

What do we think?  Is “sss” a different word from “hiss”?  Probably.  We will have to revisit this word.

Puff

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

The sound of effortful heavy breathing.  Bilbo with his short little legs puffs along the passage – and even the draught of air in Chapter 13 which could have blown out his light only threatened to puff it out.  Definitely funny and low.

  • 01.038 he thought as he puffed along the passage.
  • 01.095 and puffing on the mat,
  • 02.020 Very puffed he was,
  • 07.087 gasped Bombur puffing up behind.
  • 08.055 gasped Bombur puffing up behind.
  • 08.125 puffing and panting
  • 12.027 puffing and blowing while the ropes creaked
  • 13.008 and they made a deal of puffing
  • 13.023 but it almost puffed out his light.

Poof

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

In the middle of the Great Goblin’s great chamber, poof! Gandalf works some of his pyrotechnic magic to effect a rescue.  I’m certain that this moment of special sound effects was designed to break tension by causing at least one young listener to shriek with audience-fear and delight at being startled.  It relieves the scene of danger with a moment of fun.

  • 04.035 and the great fire went off poof!

Ow

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Bilbo complains after a high-flavoured journey through amazing treasures and tunnels – and the OED calls this an imitative word.  We include it in our list of onomatopoeic words and give it a “low” tag.

  • 13.050 But, ow! this wind is cold!’

“ow, int.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

Baa

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

Let’s test another question: are all onomatopoeic words funny, and therefore low?  At the top of the alphabet, we have the sound sheep make.  They are Beorn’s sheep, altogether remarkable, and a big piece of fairy tale in the middle of a small epic.  Definitely part of a funny scene, and we score it “low”.

[07.093] Then baa – baa – baa!  was heard, and in came some snow-white sheep led by a large coal-black ram. One bore a white cloth embroidered at the edges with figures of animals; others bore on their broad backs trays with bowls and platters and knives and wooden spoons, which the dogs took and quickly laid on the trestle-tables.

  • 07.093 Then baa – baa – baa!

Coney

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

This word for the fur of a rabbit was rare in the 18th and 19th centuries then boomed again with the booming fur-trade of the later 19th century.  As a work-related word, we are tagging it as low, as Bilbo seems to do when at first trying to wrap his head around whether Beorn as a “skin changer” is a person of lower station than himself.

  • 07.021 a man that calls rabbits conies,

“coney, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

Confusticate

lfsaldenbirch , , , , ,

Bilbo wishes confustication on the dwarves, dwarves wish the same on him.  OED calls this one colloquial and its etymology “Fantastic alteration of confound and confuse”, attested in the 1891 Farmer and Henley dictionary of American slang and… 1937, The Hobbit.  We may have just been handed our own silver platter as collateral, but that’s just fine with me.

  • 01.059 Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!’
  • 06.012 confusticate him!’
  • 08.064 Hi! hobbit, confusticate you,

“confusticate, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

Draggle

lfsaldenbirch , , ,
Recall our study of words beginning with “be-”?  The prefix “be-” is, among other things, an intensifier, as it is in “bedraggled”.  It became widely used in the late 16th century, and leaving it off of a modern word makes that word sound archaic without obscuring the meaning.  “Draggle” is the diminutive verb for getting something wet by dragging it about through the swamp or similar.  Only Thorin is draggled, and only right before he makes his Great Announcement that he is “Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King Under the Mountain”
  • 10.010 in his draggled beard;
  • 10.020 and draggled hood.

“draggle, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 20 May 2015.

Gorlach, op.cit., p. 177