onomatopoeia

Snort

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

It can be contemptuous and thereby adventurous.  However, it’s hard to label a snort as “high”.

  • 01.095 Gloin speaking: ‘Humph!’ (or some snort more or less like that).
  • 12.072 Revenge!’ he snorted,
  • 12.103 Barrel-rider!’ he snorted.
  • 16.019 and in the middle of his snort he sneezed loudly,
  • 16.019 Servant, indeed!’ snorted Bilbo;

Snore

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

It doesn’t matter who does it, I’ll bet that snores are almost always funny.

  • 09.026 and snored beside his friend.
  • 09.035 still happily snoring with smiles upon their faces.
  • 12.011 of some vast animal snoring
  • 12.016 the rumble of his snoring changed its note.
  • 12.044 with scarcely a snore more than a whiff of unseen steam,
  • 19.009 and he snored comfortably
  • 19.016 And your snores would waken a stone dragon –

Sneeze

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

Sneezes?  Funny.  The history of the word?  Apparently the word was “fneeze” which went out of use in the early 15th century.

The adoption of sneeze was probably assisted by its phonetic appropriateness; it may have been felt as a strengthened form of neeze.

Phonetic appropriateness – that’s good enough to count with me as sound-play and get the onomatopoeia label.

  • 09.063 of his suppressed sneezes.
  • 09.064 He woke again with a specially loud sneeze.
  • 09.064 and for a mercy he did not sneeze again for a good while.
  • 09.064 Bilbo sneezed again.
  • 10.039 For three days he sneezed
  • 16.019 and in the middle of his snort he sneezed loudly,

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

Slap

lfsaldenbirch , ,

Oh, the sound of Gollum’s feet on the floor…  Is it slapstick?  Is it ominous?  it’s another word which does not mean the sound, but the action, yet the name of the action imitates the sound.  An excellent game!

  • 05.004 in slapping all his pockets
  • 05.062 and slapped himself;
  • 05.073 and slapped his feet on the floor,
  • 08.041 with many a slap
  • 10.011 you had better slap your arms

“slap, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.

Shriek

lfsaldenbirch , , , ,

Bilbo utters the funniest shriek of the whole novel –

  • 01.092 he began to feel a shriek coming up inside,
  • 01.095 but one shriek like that
  • 04.036 shrieking and skriking,
  • 04.037 before the sword shrieking into the darkness.
  • 04.048 and Beater!” they shrieked;
  • 05.076 shrieked Gollum,
  • 05.093 shrieked Gollum.
  • 05.130 All at once there came a blood-curdling shriek,
  • 05.132 then they’ll have heard his shrieking
  • 06.068 shrieking back to their caves,
  • 14.012 Amid shrieks
  • 14.023 With a shriek that deafened men,
  • 18.021 or driving them down shrieking

Rustle

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Most uses of rustle seem full of danger and adventure in The Hobbit, but the mention in Chapter 2 is comical:

[02.039] …and do what they could they made a deal of rustling and crackling and creaking (and a good deal of grumbling and dratting), as they went through the trees in the pitch dark

  • 02.039 they made a deal of rustling
  • 08.037 A few leaves came rustling down
  • 12.008 hear the rustle of the whispering voices of the others just outside.
  • 13.001 and rustled in the tunnel.
  • 14.040 Leaves rustled

Ruffle

lfsaldenbirch , , ,

Only in Mirkwood do we find the word ruffle – once as the sound of feet among the leaves (as in ruffles and flourishes) and once as in disturbed smoothness – within five paragraphs of one another.

  • 08.037 Their feet ruffled
  • 08.042 ruffled here and there by the breeze;

“ruffle, n.4.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.

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

“ruffle, v.3.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.