What does Onomatopoeia mean? Definition, examples explored amid viral Hawk Tuah internet craze

From Instagram to Zach Bryan concerts, the Hawk Tuah girl is taking the internet by storm. Nashville native Hailey Welch became an overnight sensation in early June with the iconic phrase 'Hawk Tuah' during a viral street interview with Tim & Dee TV.

During her interview, Hailey was asked what she thought was one move in bed that made a man go crazy. She told the interviewer that you got to give a man the 'Hawk Tuah', a playful NSFW onomatopoeia of spitting. An onomatopoeia is a word that imitates the sound of the action or objects it describes.

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The Hawk Tuah Girl rose to fame courtesy of onomatopoeia

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the term onomatopoeia has been in use since 1553. The term has gotten a lot more popular as of late when a Nashville woman named Hailey Welch provided an example of an onomatopoeia that spread across the internet like wildfire. Merriam-Webster's definition of the word reads:

"The naming of a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the sound associated with it."

Onomatopoeic words phonetically imitate the sound described by the word itself. It is often used by writers to paint a vivid and realistic soundtrack to the image they create using words. These words immerse the reader in the action going on in the text.

In the aforementioned example of Hailey Welch, she and her friend were stopped by Tim & Dee TV, who were visiting Nashville to interview girls on the street. Welch's friend was asked the question:

"What's one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time?"

The friend deferred the question to Hailey Welch and her answer ended up going down in internet history as one of the most popular memes of all time. She shouted with extreme enthusiasm:

"Oh, you have got to give it that 'Hawk Tuah' and spit on that thang, you get me?"

In case she wasn't clear enough the first time, Welch once again spat out 'Hawk Tuah!'. In the context of the interview, Hawk Tuah is an onomatopoeic phrase that describes spitting in an NSFW context. The phrase itself and Welch's wacky tonal emphasis on it painted a clear image in the minds of viewers.

Onomatopoeic words are most commonly used in comic books with words like Bang, Zip, and Pow. Here is one example of the usage of onomatopoeia:

"A loud bang sounded across the hall as the bullet whizzed past the perpetrator."

In this example, both bang and whizzed are onomatopoeic words that both describe the action as well as provide the sound to it that allows the writer to paint a more immersive image of what is going on.

Another example of onomatopoeia can be provided using an excerpt from Carl Sandburg's poem Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio:

"It’s a jazz affair, drum crashes and cornet razzes. The trombone pony neighs and the tuba jackass snorts. The banjo tickles and titters too awful. The chippies talk about the funnies in the papers. The cartoonists weep in their beer."

Here there are seven onomatopoeic words, crashes, razzes, neighs, snorts, tickles, titters, and weep. The poet is trying to recreate the feeling of being in a jazz bar. The chaos of the bar is emulated through the precise sound of each instrument and the scintillating conversations among the patrons.

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Elsewhere, Hailey Welch got so popular that country star Zach Bryan even brought her out during his Nashville show on Saturday, June 29 to sing alongside him.