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bullroarer

noun

Etymology

From bull + roarer.

  1. derived from *rey-✻
  2. inherited from *rairōną✻
  3. inherited from *rairōn✻
  4. inherited from rārian — “to roar; wail; lament”
  5. inherited from roren
  6. suffixed as roarer — “roar + er”
  7. compounded as bullroarer — “bull + roarer”

Definitions

  1. A ritual musical instrument and means of communicating over extended distances,…

    A ritual musical instrument and means of communicating over extended distances, consisting of a slat of wood tied to the end of a thong or string, with which the slat is whirled so as to cause an intermittent roaring noise.

    • So far he was on the track of elementary Science. And so he made "bull-roarers" to imitate the sound of wind and the blessed rain-bringing thunder, or clashed great bronze cymbals together with the same object.
    • The men and boys practiced not only the technique of twirling the bullroarer, but also the mock attack staged upon the person twirling it.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bullroarer. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA