2016: Tending Towards Traditionality: onomatopoeic Jun 22, 2020

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Onomatopoeias are words that imitate natural sounds, though somewhat ironically the term itself is not the easiest one to pronounce. Moreover, it has two adjectival forms which have varying degrees of acceptance and popularity: 'onomatopoeic' and 'onomatopoetic', though other forms have also existed including ‘onomatopoeial’ and ‘onomatopoeous’. It comes from the Greek 'ὄνομα (ónoma) meaning and related to 'name', and ποιέω (poiéō) meaning 'to make', with the latter element being the exact same root as 'poem' thence 'poetic'. The form without -t- is the older and these days more common one, though that has varied (see image). Likely influences by the word 'poetic', 'onomatopoetic' was once more popular, but people are now tending towards the traditional.

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