An Etymological Dictionary of English Imitative Words (MUSE: Munich Studies in English: Munchener Schriften zur Englischen Philologie, 50)

This Dictionary is the first etymological dictionary of English imitative (onomato-poeic, mimetic) words. Imitative words (e.g. crash, bang, achoo) are words with iconic correlation between form and meaning, iconicity being a relationship of resemblance. The dictionary provides extensive information on English words of imitative origin and uncovers patterns in their diachronic development. Each entry of the altogether 1320 dictionary entries includes data on pronunciation, part of speech, source of sound, type of imitated sound, iconic word class, date of first attestation, frequency of use, origin, etymology, degree of form-meaning correspondence (stage of de-iconization), as well as a brief account of form and meaning changes. The entries also illustrate the modern usage by typical examples of the word in a sentence (the data were extracted from contemporary dictionaries and corpora of the English language) and references to relevant etymological dictionaries which confirm their imitative status.