The #Write #Words? Post 11
Looking at Onomatopoeia and Metaphor, Simile, Collective Nouns, and my Delusional Dictionary. For definitions of those, click here to read the introductory post to the series.
This week’s words: Fizzle, Free, Fleet, Fuck.
Onomatopoeia: Fizzle
‘Young Jimmy looked on with growing disappointment as his favourite whizz-bang firework, dampened by constant rain, sputtered and fizzled out with nothing but a few impotent sparks.’ Both the weak sound and the unimpressive visual effect are carried by ‘fizzle’ here. Why not see what you can come up with?
Simile: as free as a bird
What do you see when you read the word ‘free’? The obvious image is one of a bird in flight. But there must be other items and ideas that express freedom. ‘Free as a gossip’s tongue’, ‘free as a rambler’, ‘free as an artist’s mind’. These are ideas that stem from the idea of personal choice resulting in freedom. For, though a bird may appear ‘free’ as it flies, often it is slave to the winds through which it tries to navigate.
Similes to avoid because they’re clichés?
as free as a bird, free as the air.
Collective Nouns: We talk about someone being fleet of foot, so perhaps we could have a fleet of runners?
Fleet of bass, boats, cars, ducklings, foxes, lorries, ships, trucks, vehicles.
Delusional Dictionary: Fuck; a lazy spacing word for those without imagination; something apparently so worthless it’s insignificant; an act capable of self-performance; a catchall insult used by those with limited vocabularies.
For those learning English as a language, there’s a useful guide to pronunciation here, and Facebook hosts a great group you can join here.
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