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Can someone explain to me what/why a character howls in frustration. I just finished a book where the characters did it a couple of times. I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t had a fun mental image of them going “Oh I don’t like this situation I’m going to pretend to be a wolf.”
Both my characters and I will grunt in frustration, sigh in frustration, groan, scoff, moan, and a dozen other things but never “howl.” Does this strike anyone else as odd?
The pen is mightier than the sword, but in a duel, I'm taking the sword.
ekseaver.wordpress.com- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
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Hmm…*suddenly imagines any number of her favorite characters pretending to be a wolf* I’ve never thought of that before. I’ve read that several times, I’m sure, but I guess I never put an image to the words. You know, that really is weird. I’ve read books where characters howl in pain, which I suppose is a little more understandable, considering pain can cause you to make any kind of sound–but frustration? Interesting.
*pulls up Etymoline, certain there’s a reason for this anomaly*
Apparently, howl is imitative of the hoot of an owl, but the word ululation–a very close synonym of howl–is defined as a howling, yelling, shrieking, or loud lament. Perhaps this is why–howl would mean more of a yell or shriek of serious frustration (the pull your hair out and gouge your eyes kind, I suspect) rather than a wolf or owl’s howl. This would also be why it’s used in the context of howling in pain.
Well, there was our etymology lesson for the day! 😄
I’ve never noticed that before… now you’re making me laugh. I’ll have to think about it more before I come up with an answer, but my best idea is to *not* use that in your own writing.
And thank you for the reminder that I have an account on here. I created this and an SE acct a while ago but forget to use both of ’em…
// the stories are true //
@e-k-seaver People. To howl in frustration is a perfectly natural occurrence. For example, I have found myself, should circumstances prove direful enough, to relapse into sudden howls of exclamation that have, on many occasions, frightened the daylights out of my neighbors. (I’m kidding, of course.)
My true, wide, and opinionated opinion is that either the author had a horrendous sense of humour, the characters in question are strange and disoriented, or they’re fanatically insane.
ANY QUESTIONS??
@gracie-j YOU’RE INTO ETYMOLOGIES? WOW!
@mayajoelle Yeah. When I first read the beginning post on this thread, I fell off my chair…figuratively. It does make one wonder who first used the phrase, though…- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
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@leon-fleming Yes, indeed. *pushes nerdy glasses up the bridge of her nose with a prudish purse of her lips* Etymology is a sort of an obsession of mine. There’s this lovely little website, more of a search engine, really, that successfully accommodates my desire for knowledge. I not only dabble in the origins of everyday words, but also names. I’m wild about names. Like, did you know that yours comes directly from the Ancient Greek λέων (leon), meaning lion and that your last name is English and bestowed upon a person hailing from Flanders in the Netherlands?
@gracie-j *likewise pushes equally “old-man/professor-ish” wire-topped glasses up the bridge of my nose with my knuckle* Believe it or not, it’s sort of an obsession of mine as well, but I haven’t been able to become as obsessed with it as much as I’d like to for lack of proper resources. And so, naturally, I’ve searched and developed my own based off of collection knowledge of the basics. Yes, names; names are great. (One of my obsessions: words. For example, toponymy is the study of place names.) My library is EXTREMELY limited, with absolutely no source material on anything relating to etymology, morphology, linguistics in general (and specifically), phonology, philology, and all those other beautiful terms. I particularly enjoy the particulars of languages, their relations to other languages, and the basic and distinct structure of languages.
Greek is a particularly intriguing language for me, especially the older Biblical Greek, though I haven’t studied it much. All my books are currently packed…
That’s interesting; I’m a lion hailing somebody from the Netherlands. Wow; the things one finds these days…(XD…)
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