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Maneko's avatar

What are some english invectives that are onomatopoeia?

Asked by Maneko (117points) February 1st, 2018

I had asked a similar question before but I had not mentioned onomatopoeia, so I am asking again. I am looking for a word meaning “morally bankrupt”.

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13 Answers

Zaku's avatar

Do morally bankrupt people make a characteristic sound?

“ME ME ME” people?

LuckyGuy's avatar

“Oink” or “an oinker”?
While not exactly onomatopoeia, I’ve seen “Tweeter-in-Chief” used quite appropriately..

janbb's avatar

Debased

CWOTUS's avatar

I’m trying to understand what it is that you’re looking for here: an onomatopoeic word that means the same as a term that means something that can’t be touched, seen, or felt? Because “morally bankrupt” itself is a figurative take-off on some more basic word or meaning. It’s a term that doesn’t have a literal meaning – and as far as I know has no characteristic sound, either.

Take @janbb‘s “debased”, for example. That’s a common word that people should know, a fine, useful and perfectly comprehensible word. “Morally bankrupt” is a flight above that. That is, “moral bankruptcy” is a figurative way of expressing immorality, the more fundamental term. It’s a figurative expression, since there is no literal way to be “bankrupt” in a moral sense, bankruptcy itself being a term applying in a literal way only to finance.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that (the use of the words, that is), and @janbb‘s example is correct: Debasement ≈ Immorality = Moral bankruptcy.

There’s nothing wrong, either, with using the figurative term “bankrupt” in other senses where it conveys an empty purse or vault: we can be bankrupt of ideas, for example, and “moral bankruptcy” is itself a commonly used term (unfortunately so, in fact, but only unfortunate in that the concept is so commonly evidenced). It’s a good term.

So far, so good. But now you’re asking for onomatopoeia, too. I like onomatopoeia (writing it, not so much). And I like how many common words have the quality: “slice”, for example, or “chop” (as the words apply to preparing food, anyway), and “drip” as it applies to water leaking from a faucet. Even “faucet” has a certain onomatopoeic quality when applying it (as a noun) to the sound of the aerated water that can gush from it. But that’s because the words sound like an action or thing that produces sound, or the sound of the thing itself – which is the basis for onomatopoeia, after all.

What’s the sound of moral bankruptcy? Give me the sound, and I’ll look for the word.

Kardamom's avatar

How about Trumputin.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

I can’t think of any. Oaf, lout, and cad sound appropriate to what they are but they still aren’t onomatopoeic.

Maneko's avatar

@CWOTUS I am trying to find words that have a harsh sound. I’ll give some examples from other languages.
Take the word ‘bewakoof’. It means ‘foolish person’ in hindi. The person you’re saying it to will feel silly and stupid. It helps in reprimanding people.
Another word is ‘badtameez’ It means ‘mannerless’. It has the intensity of a swear word.
The words have contrasting phonemes. I found a word called ‘degenrate’ but some people say it was used by fascists and I shouldn’t use it.
Can you find invectives that are intense but not vulgar? It does not need to be the same sounds as examples.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

“Degenerate” is also famously used by mobsters who make money off drugs and gambling.

They feel it’s OK to take money from morally inferior “degenerates” who gamble and use drugs.

LostInParadise's avatar

Not quite onomatopoeia, the term “deplorables”, that got so much attention from Clinton’s use of it in the presidential campaign, has a kind of nasty ring to it.

Maneko's avatar

hi @CWOTUS, did you find any words like that?

janbb's avatar

How about ratfink?

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