Ancient Word of the Day: Sussurate

Posted byContent CatnipPosted inAncient Word of the Day, BlogTags:, , , , , , , ,
Ancient Word of the Day: Sussurate

Sussurate: n: to whisper or murmur. The noise produced by a hive of bees, a rustling of leaves in the forest or the crackling of a fire

It turns out that elemental experiences for ancient humans echo and whisper back over aeons and are universally received and recognised. No matter where we are on this planet, the sighing of the wind, crackling of the fire, buzzing of the hives and rustling of the leaves in forests all makes the same sound. Remembered from our ancestors who all spoke a shared Proto-Indo-European language.

Sense siblings

Psithurism: The whispering of wind in trees (from Ancient Greek ψιθύρισµα)

Susurrar: The whisperings of nature (from Spanish)

Travel: Walking through the ancient past in Edinburgh
Dean Village and the Water of Leith in Edinburgh is filled with an orchestra of sussuration

Suser: The whispering of the wind (from Norwegian) Example: Det Suser i Sivet which translates to The Wind in the Willows in Norwegian

Sursarahut or سرسراہٹ: Wind whistling (from Urdu)

Two terrific infographics for grounding yourself in reality, right now
Ancient Word of the Day: Sussurate

The rushing susurration

Of some eternal wing

Beats mighty variation

Through all the song I sing;

The vague, deep-mouthed commotion

From its ancestral home

Booms like the shout of ocean

Across the crumbling foam;

~A Lonely Flute, by Odell Shepard

Svirati: To whistle (from Old Church Slavonic)

Schwirren: To buzz (from German)

Januar ~ By this fire I warme my hands,
Omnia tempus habent: a delightful medieval rhyming calendar Januar ~ By this fire I warme my hands

References

Etymonline

Published by Content Catnip

Content Catnip is a quirky internet wunderkammer written by an Intergalactic Space Māori named Content Catnip. Join me as I meander through the quirky and curious aspects of history, indigenous spirituality, the natural world, animals, art, storytelling, books, philosophy, travel, Māori culture and loads more.

15 thoughts on “Ancient Word of the Day: Sussurate”

    1. Yeah it’s a beautiful word, definitely sounds like a hushed whisper. I think it’s one of my favs so far. Hope you are having a good week Jeremy thanks for the comment

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      2. I’ve got them out of various books and keep them in a list yeah and then tick them off as I go, I have occasionally duplicated them and then realised later that I have multiple posts for the same word…but oh well, all part of the fun hehe 🙂

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      4. Love that idea of that, how would it work? sounds interesting, maybe like a quiz with the answers a few days later?

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  3. Oh yes, a perfect example of this, I love onomatopoeia too, such a beautiful word. Thanks for reading Kev, hope you are having a good week 🙂

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