Farrar and onomatopoeia

[Victor Steinbok]

A bit over the top, but might be helpful in other contexts. I was
scratching my head on a couple of these, as to why they are there...

http://goo.gl/VeqcO
Chapters on Language. 1865
> These languages must, from their very nature, remain uncultivated, and
> the consequence is that they abound in onomatopoeia. In the English
> slang, a pulpit is a /hum-box/; carriages and horses are /rattlers
> /and /prads. /In the French argot the heart is /battant; /a sheep is
> /belant; /a .grimace is /bobine/; a marionette is /bouis-bouis/; to
> die is /elaquer; /a liar is /craquelin; /to drink a health is
> /cric-croc/; a skeleton-key is /frou-frou/; a glutton is /licheur; /a
> shoe is /paffe; /a soldier, by an onomatopoeia which it would take too
> long to explain, is /piou-piou/; a little chimney-sweeper is
> /raclette/; a cab is /roulant; /a dog /tambour/; a noisy child
> /tarabate/; and gendarmes, from the songs which soldiers like, is
> called /tourlouru. /These are but a few instances out of many, and it
> is impossible to deny that they establish the necessity of having
> recourse to onomatopoeia when new words have to be invented. They
> therefore furnish a fresh support to the views here advocated.

     VS-)

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org