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non-onomatopoeic

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2 months ago rolig said:

It's great, and most fitting, that Wordie should have its own resident etymologist! I just hope we don't give you too many headaches.

2 months ago qroqqa said:

Both 'onomatopoeic' and 'onomatopoetic' exist in English and are well formed, from different Greek abstract nouns. The root poi- "make" could take either the suffix -íā (which appears in English as -y or -ia) or the suffix -ēsis. The words onomatopoiíā and onomatopoíēsis are attested respectively from Hellenistic and Byzantine times. The corresponding adjective endings are -ic and -etic.

Now it gets confusing. It seems in -poeia, -poeic the -e- is part of the root poi-, regularly rendered in Latin as poe-. But in -poesis, -poetic the Greek uses an alternative stem of just po-, and here the -e- is part of the suffixes -esis, -etic. Okay, now even I'm confused. *squints and memorizes*

2 months ago rolig said:

I think it's missing a "t": "non-onomatopoetic."

2 months ago bilby said:

This word sounds just like it should.

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