Susurrous

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Mike from Tyler, Texas.

Hello, Mike. Welcome to the program.

Hi, Mike. What’s going on?

Oh, no, Mike. I’m calling in response to your call for favorite words.

Oh, yes, please.

One of my favorite words on the top five list, I suppose, would be a susurrus. Describing a sort of a whispering or rustling sound.

And where did you come across this word?

Come across it here and there.

It’s pretty rarely used, usually in some sort of fiction novel or short story or something like that. I mean, it’s not something that people use in a news report.

Unless they’re talking about that kind of sound, huh?

Yeah, indeed.

And I don’t think there’s too many news reports about rustling or whispering sounds.

So spelling that, it’s S-U…

I always spell this incorrectly.

S-U-S-U-R-R-O-U-S?

Yes.

Sucerous.

And it is absolutely onomatopoeia.

I think of the rustling pines when I hear that word.

Yes, yes.

When I talk to people and they give me quizzical looks, I’ll think of the drapes with a quiet air conditioning sort of blowing them, and they’re making a sort of a whooshing sound.

You know, you can’t hear the air.

You can hear the curtains.

Exactly.

Nice.

Exactly.

Yeah, and it goes back to a Latin word that means to whisper, which is also onomatopoetic.

Oh, nice.

Susurrare.

And in fact, in Spanish, susurro is the word for whisper.

Well, Mike, that’s a great one.

I think maybe it won’t show up just in literary uses from here on out, right?

Maybe people pick it up.

Oh, excellent.

Outstanding.

I hope people use more.

As a secondary word, another one is quotidian is another good word, but you guys may have probably already talked about that one already.

We haven’t.

It’s a beautiful word.

Why do you like it?

Just because it means daily, but do you like the sound of it?

Because it’s not what it describes.

Okay.

Okay, well, I’ll let you guys get back to your show.

Oh, I’m loving these words.

These are good, Mike.

Yeah.

Thanks, buddy.

Give us a call with some more later, all right?

Sure thing.

Take care now.

So quotidian doesn’t actually mean daily.

It means kind of ordinary, like you might just do it as any day of the week.

Well, yeah, yeah.

It’s roots.

Roots are in Latin, meaning, you know, every day.

Every day, yeah.

Same thing in Spanish, cotidiano.

Oh, nice.

That’s a good word.

Well, Mike had the right idea.

If you’ve got a word that you just love and you think people should use more, tell us, 877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.