Abstract
The entry discusses the formation and various instances of onomatopoeia in Classical Greek, with reference to Proto-Indo-European as well as later forms of the Greek language (Koine and Modern Greek).
The term onomatopoeia (from the Greek ‘making names’) refers to words that imitate the sounds of the things they describe. The most common examples of onomatopoeia mimic sounds found in nature, either those of animals or inanimate objects. The geographer Strabo makes particular reference to both the term ‘onomatopoeia’ its…