Susurrus

According to Websters dictionary, susurrus comes from the Latin and means whisper, murmur, hum; a whispering, rustling or muttering sound.  One of T.S Eliot's essays (written in 1922) talks about "the confused cries of the newspaper critics and the susurrus of popular repetition that follows". 

Nearly a century later, and this word still occasionally appears in literature.  One modern writer, Jim Butcher, used it in his short story 'Aftermath' published in 2011:  "Then I circled around, killed the engine with the bike still in motion, and came coasting back over the cracked old asphalt, the whisper of my tires lost in the susurrus of city sounds and water lapping the lakeshore."

Susurrus is a fine example of onomatopoeia.  These are words which suggest the sound of their meaning -for instance, ricochet, ping, cock-a-doodle-doo, etc.  With onomatopoeic words sound and sense echo and reinforce each other, often using alliteration and assonance.  They are common in children's stories, advertising and comics.  Remember that television series of Batman in the 1960s?  They even had onomatopoeic onscreen captioned sound effects during the fight scenes.  Have a look at this youtube video to see what I mean... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r94AJzJZZaU

Onomatopoeia is all around us, if you look and listen for it.

Sources:
Butcher, Jim (2011) 'Aftermath' from Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files, Orbit. 
Eliot, T.S. (1922) 'Tradition and the Individual Talent' from The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism.
McArthur, Tom, ed. (1992) The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press.
Websters Third New International Dictionary, unabridged (1993)


Juliana