[Lexicog] pluff mud (was plough mud)

[Frantz, Donald]

I guess my suggestion does refer to onomatapoeia secondarily, if  
"pluff" was used that way to refer to flatus before the mud was named  
for its odor. I wonder if it is possible to find out if this was true.

On 27-May-10, at 2:03 PM, David Frank wrote:
> I still think the semantic link is tenuous, but am convinced now  
> that the term "pluff mud" does not come from the English word "plow/ 
> plough," and that the spelling "pluff mud" is older than "plough  
> mud," and that it does date back to a Scottish word meaning  
> something like "puff." There really isn't anything light, airy or  
> puffy about pluff mud, and as Donald Frantz and others have pointed  
> out, there seems to be some kind of onomatapoeia or sound symbolism  
> going on.
>
> -- David Frank
>
>
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