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.

THE INNOCENCE OF BARE SHOULDERS by Marisa Masterson

Old daguerreotypes and photographs intrigue me. It's a small window into the past, but I also like to study how the sitters in those relics are clothed. As I studied some of the oldest from the 1840s and 1850s, I noticed a trend for children--bare shoulders.

Notice the hair parted on the sides and piled on top.
A common style for young boys in 1840s.

And I say children. This was also done at times with little boys. Before they reached the age of four, boys and girls would have been dressed in the same fashion. Only the part of the hair would be a clue to gender. Boys had their hair parted on the side; girls had theirs parted down the middle.

President Grant's wife, Julia Dent Grant, once wrote about her early years and commented on children's fashion. "...the children's arms and legs were bare in those days..." (American Victorian Costume in Early Photographs) 

Parents apparently admired the dimpled shoulders and knees of their children. It was associated with innocence. (Interesting that some women's ballgowns also were worn off the shoulder at this time. Still to indicate innocence?)

Baring the shoulders surprises me. It's amazing to me in a time when there was no central heating and the United States was experiencing what later came to be known as the Little Ice Age. 

As I studied photographs, I noticed that this trend quit by the 1860s. No more bare shoulders. Mrs. Grant's comment reinforced that there was a change in fashion for whatever reason. (Was the war responsible? I expect it somehow was.)

Whatever the reason for the change, the bared shoulders in early daguerreotypes connect the image with the 1840s and 1850s. It was a time of innocence before a war ripped apart the United States.

If you are interested in old photograph and fashion, I recommend Priscilla Harris Dalrymple's easy to read book, American Victorian Costume in Early Photographs (published by Dover). I use it as a resource while writing my novels.

She fell in love with an ideal. Too bad the man that she meets is so different.

Jack Dixon knew his mother was right. It was time he married. He'd go along with whatever she writes in her letter to the matchmaker.

Priscilla Pringle fell in love with the man who wrote such a tender letter. Too bad that when she meets the man in Missouri, he is the complete opposite. 

She'd leave and return immediately. But what would happen to the orphaned piglet she is bottle feeding?

Will she stay after the piggy is weaned? Is Jack the only one who needs to change to make their marriage work?

Read on Amazon to find out. Also available in Kindle Unlimited.

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