If grumble comes to mean the expression of a mental state of dissatisfaction, the connexion between the sound of the word and its sense is even more direct, for the verb is imitative of the sound produced in such moods, cf. mumble and grunt, gruntle. The name of Mrs. Grundy is not badly chosen as a representative of narrow-minded conventional morality.
A long list might be given of symbolic expressions for dislike, disgust, or scorn; here a few hints only can find place. First we have the same dull or dump (back) vowels as in the last paragraph: blunder, bungle, bung, clumsy, humdrum, humbug, strum, slum, slush, slubber, sloven, muck, mud, muddle, mug (various words, but all full of contempt), juggins (a silly person), numskull (old numps, nup, nupson), dunderhead, gull, scug (at Eton a dirty or untidy boy).... Many words begin with sl- (we have already seen some): slight, slim, slack, sly, sloppy, slipslop, slubby, slattern, slut, slosh.... Initial labials are also frequent.[103] After the vowel we have very often the sound [ʃ] or [tʃ], as in trash, tosh, slosh, botch, patch; cf. also G. kitsch (bad picture, smearing), patsch(e) (mire, anything worthless), quatsch (silly nonsense), putsch (riot, political coup de main). E. bosh (nonsense) is said to be a Turkish loan-word; it has become popular for the same reason for which the French nickname boche for a German was widely used during the World War. Let me finally mention the It. derivative suffix -accio, as in poveraccio (miserable), acquaccia (bad water), and -uccio, as in cavalluccio (vile horse).
XX.—§ 8. Size and Distance.
The vowel , especially in its narrow or thin variety, is particularly appropriate to express what is small, weak, insignificant, or, on the other hand, refined or dainty. It is found in a great many adjectives in various languages, e.g. little, petit, piccolo, piccino, Magy. kis, E. wee, tiny (by children often pronounced teeny [ti·ni]), slim, Lat. minor, minimus, Gr. mikros; further, in numerous words for small children or small animals (the latter frequently used as endearing or depreciative words for children), e.g. child (formerly with [i·] sound), G. kind, Dan. pilt, E. kid, chit, imp, slip, pigmy, midge, Sp. chico, or for small things: bit, chip, whit, Lat. quisquiliæ, mica, E. tip, pin, chink, slit.... The same vowel is found in diminutive suffixes in a variety of languages, as E. -y, -ie (Bobby, baby, auntie, birdie), Du. -ie, -je (koppie ‘little hill’), Gr. -i- (paid-i-on ‘little boy’), Goth. -ein, pronounced [i·n] (gumein ‘little man’), E. -kin, -ling, Swiss German -li, It. -ino, Sp. -ico, -ito, -illo....
As smallness and weakness are often taken to be characteristic of the female sex, I suspect that the Aryan feminine suffix -i, as in Skr. vṛkī ‘she-wolf,’ naptī ‘niece,’ originally denotes smallness (‘wolfy’), and in the same way we find the vowel i in many feminine suffixes; thus late Lat. -itta (Julitta, etc., whence Fr. -ette, Henriette, etc.), -ina (Carolina), further G. -in (königin), Gr. -issa (basilissa ‘queen’), whence Fr. -esse, E. -ess.
The same vowel is also symbolical of a very short time, as in the phrases in a jiff, jiffy, Sc. in a clink, Dan. i en svip; and correspondingly we have adjectives like quick, swift, vivid and others. No wonder, then, that the Germans feel their word for ‘lightning,’ blitz, singularly appropriate to the effect of light and to the shortness of duration.[104]
It has often been remarked[105] that in corresponding pronouns and adverbs the vowel i frequently indicates what is nearer, and other vowels, especially a or u, what is farther off; thus Fr. ci, là, E. here, there, G. dies, das, Low G. dit, dat, Magy. ez, emez ‘this,’ az, amaz ‘that,’ itt ‘here,’ ott ‘there,’ Malay iki ‘this,’ ika ‘that, a little removed,’ iku ‘yon, farther away.’ In Hamitic languages i symbolizes the near and u what is far away. We may here also think of the word zigzag as denoting movement in alternate turns here and there; and if in the two E. pronouns this and that the old neuter forms have prevailed (OE. m. þes, se, f. þeos, seo, n. þis, þæt) the reason (or one of the reasons) may have been that a characteristic difference of vowels in the two contrasted pronouns was thus secured.
XX.—§ 9. Length and Strength of Words and Sounds.
Shorter and more abrupt forms are more appropriate to certain states of mind, longer ones to others. An imperative may be used both for command and for a more or less humble appeal or entreaty; in Magyar dialects there are short forms for command: írj, dolgozz; long for entreaty: írjál, dolgozzál (Simonyi US 359, 214). Were Lat. dic, duc, fac, fer used more than other imperatives in commands? The fact that they alone lost -e might indicate that this was so. On the other hand the imperatives es, este and i had to yield to the fuller (and more polite) esto, estote, vade, and scito is always said instead of sci (Wackernagel, Gött. Ges. d. Wiss., 1906, 182, on the avoidance of too short forms in general). Other languages, which have only one form for the imperative, soften the commanding tone by adding some word like please, bitte.
An emotional effect is obtained in some cases by lengthening a word by some derivative syllables, in themselves unmeaning; thus in Danish words for ‘lengthy’ or ‘tiresome’: langsommelig, kedsommelig, evindelig for lang(som), kedelig, evig. (Cf. Ibsen, Når vi døde vågner 98: Du er kanske ble’t ked af dette evige samliv med mig.—Evige? Sig lige så godt: evindelige.) In the same way the effect of splendid is strengthened in slang: splendiferous, splendidous, splendidious, splendacious. A long word like aggravate is felt to be more intense than vex (Coleman)—and that may be the reason why the long word acquires a meaning that is strange to its etymology. And “to disburden one’s self of a sense of contempt, a robust full-bodied detonation, like, for instance, platitudinous, is, unquestionably, very much more serviceable than any evanescing squib of one or two syllables” (Fitzedward Hall). Cf. also multitudinous, multifarious.