onomatopoeia

Forms

onomatopoeïa f (genitive onomatopoeïae); first declension^[1] Quintilian often writes it in Greek letters, and the spellings onomatopeia, onomatopia and onomatopyia also occur.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek ὀνοματοποιία (onomatopoiía, “the making of a name”),^[3][4][1] which is made up of ὄνομα (ónoma, “name”) and ποιέω (poiéō, “to make”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Quintilian (c. 35–95/96 AD) discusses it as the coining of a word, fictio nominis.^[2][6][5]

Semantic evolution

For Quintilian it was the coining of new words in general.^[3][2] The later grammarians narrowed it to words made to imitate a sound: Sacerdos gives hinnire, “to neigh”, made from the sound a horse makes, and Donatus calls it a word made from a sound, like tinnitus and clangor.^[2] Isidore of Seville took it over,^[2] and Bede's example was cymbalum tinniens, a “tinkling cymbal”.^[7] English borrowed onomatopoeia from Late Latin in the 1570s.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian defines it as the coining of a word.^[2][5]
• 3rd century AD – Sacerdos defines it as a word imitating a sound.^[2][5]
• c. 310–380 AD – Donatus calls it a word made from a sound.^[2][5]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville uses it.^[2][5]
• first third of the 8th century – Bede gives cymbalum tinniens as an example.^[7][5]
• 1570s – English borrows it.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rhetoric) The coining of a new word.^[3][2]
2. (grammar) The forming of a word to imitate a sound, onomatopoeia.^[4][6][7]

Related words

• English onomatopoeia

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com