Pronunciation (US) (help·info), from the Greek ὀνοματοποιία;[1] ὄνομα for "name"

Examples in media

Dook dook drinking sound effect as depicted inwebcomic Scary Go Round

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  Whaam! (1963) by Roy Lichtenstein is an early example of pop art, featuring a reproduction of comic book art that depicts a fighter aircraft striking another with rockets with dazzling red and yellow explosions.
  
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  Marvel Comics has trademarked two words of their own invention: thwip!, the sound of Spider-Man's web shooter, and snikt!the switchblade-sound of Wolverine's claws locking into place (which was replaced with the lesser-known schlikt during the period he was left without the adamantium covering on his bones). Marvel also uses the sound effect "bamf" to signifyNightcrawler's teleportation.
  
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  In Doctor Who comic strips, the sound of the Tardis is represented as vworp! vworp!
  
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  In the Garfield comic strip and television series, there is a running gag about a "splut," which is usually the sound of a pie hitting someone in the face.
  
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    For example, Garfield once kicked Odie, but instead of 'kick' it said 'blagoonga', with Garfield remarking to Jon that Odie needs to be tuned
    
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  The late Mad cartoonist Don Martin often used such words in his artwork, to comic effect.
  
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  In the 1960s TV series Batman, comic book style onomatopoeias such as wham!, pow!, "biff!", crunch and "zounds" appear onscreen during fight scenes. This is often the subject of parody, for example in the Simpsons episode "Radioactive Man" where the onomatopoeic words are replaced with snuh!, newt! and mint! which are references to other Simpsons episodes. There are also internet memes with a picture of Batman and the caption "I can punch you so hard words will appear in thin air." or a variation thereof.
  
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  Ubisoft's XIII employed the use of comic book onomatopoeias such as bam!, boom and noooo! during gameplay for gunshots, explosions and kills, respectively. The comic-book style is apparent throughout the game and is a core theme, and the game is an adaptation of a comic book of the same name.
  
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  In the movie Winnie the Pooh: Springtime with Roo, Tigger lists onomatopoeia as a possible word that Rabbit doesn't allow to be said in his house. Tigger also announces that onomatopoeia is in fact a real word. The irony in this being that "Pooh" got his name from the sound he made when trying to blow a bee off of his nose.
  
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  The onomatopoeia that is said to be heard at a typical Disco Biscuits (a popular jamband) show is untz. This description seems to have originated from an interview with Bob Dylan, who said "I kept hearing this, untz..untz..untz..untz..(sound in the background of all the music)"
  
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  In book 4 of Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels, the name of the Houyhnhnms is an onomatopoeia for the whinny of a horse.
  
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  The chorus of American popular song writer John Prine's song "Onomatopoeia" cleverly incorporates onomatopoeic words (though as discussed, 'ouch!' is not the sound of pain): "Bang! went the pistol. | Crash! went the window. | Ouch! went the son of a gun. | Onomatopoeia | I don't wanna see ya | Speaking in a foreign tongue."
  
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  Todd Rundgren wrote a humorous song "Onomatopoeia" which uses many examples in this "Love Song". Examples in the song start out reasonable and start to get more ludicrous as the song goes on.
  
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  The comic strip For Better or For Worse is notorious for using non-onomatopoeic verbs as onomatopoeias, such as "Scrape," to indicate a person shaving, or "Tie," to illustrate someone tying a string around a package.
  
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  A well-known rhetorical question is "Why doesn't onomatopoeia sound like what it is?". Iain M. Banks references this in his novel Against a Dark Background, when a character claims that the word onomatopoeia is spelled "just the way it sounds!".
  
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  Brian Preston, a Quizzo night host in Philadelphia used words like crash, boom, and fart to describe onomatopoeia. Fart is a non-onomatopoeia (although its Proto-Indo-European language ancestor perd- (compare Greek περδομαι and Avestic prd) is more realistic).
  
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  "Kerplunk" was used in the video game Final Fantasy VIII as the name of one of the Guardian Force Cactuar's attacks. For the Guardian Force Tonberry, the humorously out of place onomatopoeia of doink! is written on-screen during its powerful knife stab attack.
  
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  In the video game Brave Story: New Traveler, an onomatopoeia appears wherever an attack hits its target.
  
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  The January 8, 2008 comic of Ozy and Millie featured a panel in which Millie repeats the word "Splorsh" and Ozy quips "I've noticed you find Onomatopoeia extremely distracting."
  
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  The marble game KerPlunk is an onomatopoeia for the sound of the marbles dropping when one too many sticks has been removed.
  
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  The Nickelodeon cartoon Kablam is implied to be onomotapoeic to a crash.
  
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  In a 2002 episode of The West Wing, Rob Lowe (Sam Seaborn) and Ian McShane (portraying a Russian negotiator) have a conversation about how the word 'frumpy' "onomatopoetically sounds right".^[5]
  
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  In an episode of Duckman, a fight between Duckman and King Chicken crashes through a college classroom where Ajax was earlier giving a presentation on onomatopoeia. They tumble through a series of signs from the presentation on their way through, each labeled with the appropriate onomatopoeia for the sound effect that plays during the fight.
  
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  In one issue of Punisher, "funt" was used as the sound of a fired silenced pistol.
  

See also

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  Anguish Languish
  
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  Animal sounds
  
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  Sound symbolism
  
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    Japanese sound symbolism
    
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  Vocal learning
  

References

Notes

1.