Wordie: Onomatopoeia: Comments

Comment by she, 2 months ago

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:58:28 +0000

Personally, onomatopoeia became very easy to spell once I imagined it as

O no, 'mato! Poe-i-a

(has a hellomoto sort of ring to it; 'mato as in tomato, Poe as in Edgar Allen-)

Comment by oroboros, 4 months ago

Fri, 16 May 2008 18:37:40 +0000

The longest common word containing only four consonants.

--Will Shortz's intro to "Wordplay: A curious dictionary of language oddities" by Chris Cole.

Comment by frindley, 6 months ago

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:31:55 +0000

If onomatopoeia is using words that imitate the sound they denote, then what is the word for words that make you look like the appearance they denote when you say them, e.g. moue, that special kind of disdainful French pout.

Comment by Bug, 9 months ago

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 08:10:45 +0000

I love the sound of this word. It makes me think of a gangster talking to someone gagged and tied on the floor....."Whatsa matta with you a? ona mata pee-ya!

Okay, I know it's dumb, but it makes me chuckle every time I think about the word.

Comment by bilby, 10 months ago

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 14:02:05 +0000

Greek catch-all for short stories about wayward pulses. Derived from the genre classic which begins: "On a mat a pea, a lentil and a foppish adzuki sat swigging rumble juice."

Comment by skipvia, 12 months ago

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:24:53 +0000

Also the name of a rather grisly Marvel Comics villain. His only utterances are onomatopoeias.

Try it sometime.

Comment by dlarson, about 1 year ago

Thu, 10 May 2007 02:58:45 +0000

A friend in elementary school told me a way to remember how to spell this and I never forgot it:

O No Ma! Topo E-I-A!

haha