(no subject)

[cosmic_llin]

Rich and I were talking about onomatopoeia.
He reckons that the word 'bowl' is onomatopoeic, because the rounded vowel suggests the roundness of a bowl, but I said that it isn't because a bowl doesn't actually make the sound 'bowl'.
Am I right? Is there another word for when words suggest a quality like that? I feel like I should know this...

Comments

[cadiliniel.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's onomatopoeic, because like you say, a bowl doesn't make a sound that sounds like 'bowl'.

I'm not aware of anything that suggest something like he means, but I would think if there was one then the word would've been created specifically so that it has the sound to it. Seeing as bowl is (I assume) such an old word, I don't know if that would be applicable.

I don't know, though :)