Onomatopoeia!

By Nancy Becker

I’ll never forget the day in Mrs. Blosser’s English class when I first heard the word “onomatopoeia,” and learned what it means. It’s such a silly-sounding, crazily-spelled word, built with 12 letters, eight of which are vowels with the only absent vowel being “u!” (It kinda sounds like it would be a naughty word; at least it did in the awkward minds of junior high smart alecks!)
This big word, onomatopoeia, is defined as (1) : the naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it (such as buzz, hiss); and (2) : the use of words whose sound suggests the sense.
The word “onomatopoeia” actually originated before I was born, in the 1500s from the Greek “onoma” (which means “word or name”) and “poiein” (which means “to make”).
I found a better definition—on Pinterest, of all places. So here you go, with the most delightful definition of onomatopoeia you’ll ever find anywhere:

Onomatopoeia!
My what a word!
It means every sound effect
that you have ever heard:
  crash, crunch, zing, zip,
    meow, munch, roar, rip,
      sizzle, crackle, splat, kerplunk,
        bang, clank, woof, thunk,
          hiss, whiz, oink, moo,
        sniff, snap, cough, achoo,
      dong, ding, pong, ping,
    bang, bing, zap, zing!
    Pow! Bowwow! Burp! Slurp!
    Whish! Swish! Oops! Whoops!
    Click and Clack!
    Boo hoo! Choo choo!
    Cock-a-doodle-doodle-doo!

    I think that when
      you’ve read this list
        you’ll get the main idea...
      All these crazy sound effects
  are onomatopoeia!
Once you’ve learned to say this word
     you kind of want to yell it;
but even if you yell the word
    I bet you cannot spell it!
But you can learn to spell this word
    in just a single day...
O-N-O-M-A-T-O-P-O-E-I-A-!