[Lexicog] Origin and synonyms of "wimp"

[Conor McDonough Quinn]

Dia dhaoibh, a chairde!

There's an interesting dissertation on sound symbolism in "kecap
panganteur" in Sundanese (Austronesian, W. Java), particles which
accompany verbs and which are said to have an "inchoative" sense, though I
am still not sure I understand what's intended by "inchoative".  I don't
have the dissertation or the reference on hand, but can dig the latter up.
If I remember the facts right, there are the standard expected
sound-symbolic effects,
i.e. *blug* accompanies the verb for ''fall' if the fallee is a heavy
object, and *pluk* if it is light.

My personal favorite, and one my Sundanese-speaking host families have
always loved to cite, is the kecap panganteur that goes with *naek*
'ascend, climb': *berebet naek* describes the way a cat scrambles up a
tree when a dog is chasing it.  Whether specifically this, or just as an
instance of a broader range of meanings, I don't know.

More:

reup peureum	peureum 'night falls'
bray indit	indit 'goes'
bray caang	caang 'it dawns'
jol dateng	dateng 'comes'
am dahar	dahar 'eats'
barakatak seuri	seuri 'laughs'
blug labuh	labuh 'falls'

I must confess I haven't thought much about the lexicographic issues
that kecap panganteur bring up---e.g. the tight lexical relationship with
their verbs, akin to that of the particle to its verb in Germanic
languages, but even more idiosyncratic---but they are definitely fun to
play with, and I'd be interested in seeing if folks out there on the list
know of comparable cases.

Sla/n,
bhur gcara



On Sat, 25 Jun 2005, David Tuggy wrote:

> Phonosemantics indeed.
>
> Interestingly, in Orizaba Nawatl the phoneme w shows signs of splitting
> into w and v (fricative bilabial). v has been, for centuries and in
> various dialects, an adherent of the w phoneme, sometimes as a
> phonologically conditioned allomorph, sometimes socially conditioned,
> e.g. in women's as opposed to men's speech, sometimes fluctuating in
> various environments. Anyhow, in some Orizaba towns, the split seems to
> be developing along such lines that a form with w is "bigger" or
> "stronger", whereas the variant with "v" is the small, veak, vimpy vun.
> E.g. kuavitl = stick, kuawitl = tree, mokokova "be uncomfortable/sick",
> mokokowa "be seriously ill, injure yourself" cf. nechkokowa "he/it
> hurts/wounds me" and nechkokova "it bothers/hurts me."
>
> Note also in English the big bang bust blow (up) blast blistering
> blaring set of violent sounds or other processes, along with softer
> words like baby, bubble, blow (gently), balloon, bathe.
>
> If (and of course it's a big if, though I think there's something in it)
> phonosemantics ties in, somehow and sometimes, to "natural" or iconic
> meaning connections, some sounds are likely ambivalent, and position in
> a word is likely to be relevant. And a sound that gets associated with a
> meaning in one language may well be associated with a different one in
> another language. Yet there seems to be enough beyond-chance
> correspondence that some "natural" sorting must be at work.
>
> The phenomenon is a fascinating one, anyway. It is so hard to pin down,
> which is part of why it's so interesting.
>
> --David Tuggy
>
> John Roberts wrote:
>
> > Fritz Goerling asked:
> > > Where does "wimp" come from?
> > > What are some of its  "synonyms" in English (American, British, or other
> > > variants of English)?
> > Fritz,
> >
> > This is the entry for "wimp" (n) from the online etymology dictionary:
> >
> > 1920 (but not attested again until 1960), perhaps a clipped form of
> > whimper (cf whimp, 1549), perhaps influenced by J. Wellington Wimpy,
> > comparatively unaggressive character in "Popeye" comics. Wimpy (adj.)
> > is from 1967.
> >
> > The NODE concurs that the origin of "wimp" is unknown, but perhaps it
> > is from "whimper".
> >
> > "wet", "weed", "weakling", "wuss", (some phonosemantics going on
> > here) "sissy", "chicken" are some synonyms.
> >
> > We have the "whimperative" mood in Amele (Papuan) expressed by the
> > sentence final postposition =mo. E.g. "wa itaga=mo" 'please give me
> > some water' (usually expressed in a whimpering tone).
> >
> > John Roberts
> >
> >
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