Thrumming seems like such a calm, purring sound.
- 12.013 a thrumming came from his jaws
word
Squash
How very odd! For all the tight places mentioned, only Chapter 2 features the word “squash”.
- 02.071 But his poor little feet had been very squashed
- 02.080 and squash them into jelly;
- 02.092 and squash them,
- 02.108 and squashing them
Splash
Definitely sound play – and a familiar one. Falling into the water is not always humourous – but that seems to be the feel in these passages. Well bless us and splash us!
- 01.065 Splash the wine on every door!
- 02.029 as he splashed along behind the others
- 05.010 he trotted splash into water!
- 05.015 and splash us, my precioussss!
- 05.105 and the splash as Gollum leapt from his boat.
- 07.106 a splash of white on the floor came from the high moon,
- 08.018 Splash it fell
- 09.049 Heave ho! Splash plump!
- 09.054 splash!
- 10.045 and splashed,
- 11.006 and splashing among many boulders,
- 16.017 and fell into the cold water with a splash.
Snuffle
Wolves and bears – very dangerous creatures, but this word has a funny edge.
- 06.060 and then went snuffling about
- 07.120 snuffling, and growling as before.
Snort
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
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 –
Sniff
Bilbo, Gollum, and Smaug – sniffing sounds funny in the first instance, but creepy and threatening thereafter!
- 02.042 and Bilbo had sniffed more than once
- 05.127 and sniffed,
- 12.020 and stretched forth his neck to sniff.
Sneeze
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
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.
Shuffle
Another example of a word which does sound like that it means without officially being classed as an imitative word by the OED:
- 13.008 and they made a deal of puffing and shuffling
“shuffle, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. Web. 29 May 2015.
words that you were saying 