Early Light
This is May 3, 2008. The word for today is onomatopoeia. It’s a doozie, and my new favorite term to drop while chatting “intellectuals.” Their look either says they have no idea what I’m talking about, or I’m pronouncing it wrong which renders me a virtual idiot.
I’ll never forget an occasion when an otherwise meticulous hostess greeted me at her door with a plate of lovely appetizers. She said, “Would you like a canape?” But she pronounced it “can-APE’. Maybe that’s the European pronunciation.
Onomatopoeia - pronounced [on-uh-mat-uh-pee-uh, ‑mah-tuh‑] It’s a great word (a noun) referring to such terms as cuckoo, pow or boom - any word that imitates the sound made by or associated with its referent.
əˌmæt
