Les Jones

Word of the Day > Word of the Day: Reduplication

Reduplication words, or echo words, repeat a sound. They can be complete duplications (bonbon), or singsongy words with different vowels (ping pong) or consonants (hocus pocus). The English words tend to be used for their pleasant sound, but in some languages the base word and the reduplication have different meanings or parts of speech. Wikipedia has a dense article on reduplication.

Hat tip to Ironic Sans, which has an original reduplication poem. Free sample:

When you say night-night to your baby
there’s a fifty-fifty chance
That she may have gone wee-wee
Or made a doo-doo in her pants.

Mahi Mahi is a fish.
Add some tartar, it wouldn’t hurt.
Couscous makes a great side dish.
Have a bonbon for dessert.

Lulu wore a muumuu
cocoa-colored like her friend’s.
Fifi said it’s too matchy-matchy
But they’re buddy-buddy ‘til the end.

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