Dictionary

echoism en · NOUN

Etymology

From echo + -ism.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The practice of creating words or language by imitating sounds from the environment.
   • One possibility is that language developed from echoism, i.e. from attempts of early humans to imitate natural sounds and react vocally to emotions. 1999, Marcel Danesi, Paul Perron, Analyzing Cultures: An Introduction and Handbook, page 139:
   • That is the simple account of the motivation for the phenomenon of sound symbolism or echoism. 2011, Karl Bühler, Theory of Language: The Representational Function of Language:

Forms