sound symbolism

American  

noun

Linguistics.

1. a nonarbitrary connection between phonetic features of linguistic items and their meanings, as in the frequent occurrence of close vowels in words denoting smallness, as petite and teeny-weeny.

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Etymology

Origin of sound symbolism

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

This suggests a "hybrid" nature of these death whistle sounds, combining a basic psychoaffective influence on listeners with more elaborate mental processes of sound symbolism, signifying the iconographic nature.

From Science Daily • Nov. 19, 2024

They wondered whether it might even represent what’s called sound symbolism.

From New York Times • Dec. 6, 2022

Christiansen's work pushes sound symbolism back to the forefront.

From Washington Post • Sep. 12, 2016

Their work offers clues to the origins of sound symbolism, and explains why we develop intuitions about the meanings of words we have never heard before.

From Scientific American • Oct. 20, 2015

The frequency code isn’t the only kind of sound symbolism.

From Slate • Sep. 21, 2014