OUAI

Jonathan Robie jonathan at texcel.no
Tue Sep 15 14:26:28 EDT 1998


 
>Yes- such words are called onomonopoetic (or some such thing...)  from the
>greek "onoma" and "poiew" = doing its name.  Like the English buzz, etc.
 
I think that POIEW in this case has a sense like the German "machen", which
can mean "make" or "do", depending on context. I think the root meaning is
"making a name" or "making up a name".

>>Is this a possibility?
 
Sure, OUAI not?

Notes:

(1) The above joke only works with Erasmian pronunciation.
(2) I *do* think this is an interesting and useful suggestion. And perhaps
trying too hard to exegete the exact meaning of such words isn't that
helpful...

Jonathan
 
jonathan at texcel.no
Texcel Research
http://www.texcel.no



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