DID THEY HEAR WHAT I HEAR? by Marisa Masterson

 Bonk! Now, don't think about the modern use for that word. Nothing dirty is meant here.

https://tattoobird.tumblr.com/post/651562898279235584

I simply wanted bonk to describe a hit on a character's head in my latest writing project. Then I began to reconsider. Did someone in 1880 use that onomatopoeia?

https://collections.theworldwar.org/argus/final/Portal/Default.aspx

Strange to realize it, but even our words used to represent sounds can reflect the time period when we live. And no, bonk would not have been used in the 1880s. It originated during World War I. Then it meant to fire artillery. To be bonked meant being hit by a shell. In the 1920s, the word changed. It described hitting someone or something.

What words were commonly used onomatopoeia in the 1800s? What could I use and stay true to my historical time period?

https://www.audible.com/pd
/The-Bells-Audiobook/B0854966F4

I only have to look at a favorite poem of mine, one I loved to teach when I was in the classroom. Edgar Allen Poe gives us a wonderful list of used sound words in The Bells.

Taken from the poem:

 Yet the ear it fully knows,
            By the twanging,
            And the clanging,
         How the danger ebbs and flows;
       Yet the ear distinctly tells,
            In the jangling,
            And the wrangling.
       How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells—
             Of the bells—
     Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
            Bells, bells, bells—
 In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

(https://poets.org/poem/bells)

 

Would I, in 2025, use wrangling as a sound word? Probably not. Clangor? No, that's not a common one in my vocabulary. Was it common at Poe's time in the nineteenth century? I'm not sure, but it does make me wonder.

 By studying nineteenth-century literature, we get an impression of some of the more common sound words used. A Google search suggested this list:

• Tinkle: Imitating the light, high-pitched ringing sound of bells.
• Clang: Representing a loud, ringing metallic sound.
• Clash: Similar to clang, depicting the sound of two objects striking forcefully.
• Crackle: The sound of something dry breaking apart or a fire burning.
• Thump: A dull, heavy sound of impact.
• Whir: The humming or buzzing sound of a spinning object or machine.
• Knock: Imitating the sound of someone tapping on a door.
• Click/Clack: Representing short, sharp sounds, often mechanical, like a door latch or high heels.
• Splish-splash: The sound of liquids hitting a surface, typically water.
• Tick-tock: The sound of a clock. 

The last one is definitely something from the past. So few people use anything other than an electronic device for time nowadays. Clash is another seldom-used word, at least as an adjective. It has become a verb.

What does this all mean? The dialogue in my books definitely needs to reflect a time that is different from my own. 

Maybe I'll thump my character on the head rather than give him a bonk. To my modern ears, that sounds so much more wholesome.