What is the word for...

Nena

This can become a general thread, but I'm stuck on a word and it's driving me crazy not being able to find it.

What I want to know is, what is the name for the sound an eagle or hawk makes when it's high in the sky? I've looked it up on Google and though I'm not the first to ask the question, nobody seems to have had anything but silly or at best banal answers ( I know it's a flight call, but what's it's name?) There must be a word, it's too beautiful and atmospheric a sound not to have a name, but what is it? :(

I might go and ask on an American site too. I bet there's a word in Native American.

pbw

'Mew' seems rather dull, although it is used for bird sounds.

'keening' came to mind but I'm not sure.

If you could get hold of some info on ornithology, there might be a description of it.

I think I know what you're after. You want to convey that haunting, unreachable, almost alien quality and the sense of distance and height.

Nena

[quote=paperbackwriter]I think I know what you're after. You want to convey that haunting, unreachable, almost alien quality and the sense of distance and height.[/quote] That's exactly what I mean! In Ethiopia, there's a word to describe the exact moment when a flower opens. In the Inuit language there's a word for snowflakes that fall together in clumps. But we don't have a word for this sound? English so inadequate sometimes! No wonder Shakespeare had to make up so many!

Island Girl

Sorry, I'd love to help but don't think I can, Nena. The only word I've heard it called is 'piping' but that's probably not what you want.

SilverLinings

Perhaps the sound depends on the tone your wishing to set. I have seen eagles circling over water, keening eagerly to their partners fish-in-talon and lamenting as they soar, a solitary smudge on in the summer sky.

snailmale

Never heard either, but 'screech' seems satisfyingly appropriate ?

Nena

[quote=Island Girl]Sorry, I'd love to help but don't think I can, Nena. The only word I've heard it called is 'piping' but that's probably not what you want.[/quote]
Actually, EG, I think that's the closest I have seen to what I'm looking for. "Screech" is too harsh and "keening" reminds me of funerals, so it's too miserable. It is more of a whistle than a screech.

Eddisbury

I know the sound and I love it! But I can never think of a word for it that seems appropriate.
It's a wow, just listen to that sort of sound.

Jediya

The sound a hawk or eagle makes in flight is usually written as 'tseer' in many a book I have (inc. birdwatching and fiction books). In the case of something like the red-tailed hawk it's often said to have a 'steam-whistle' quality.

Usually accompanied with words like: screech, scream, cry, call, trill, raspy descending, haunting, etc..

Nena

Jediya, 'tseer' sounds like the perfect word, but I've never seen it before and I can't find it in a dictionary. I suppose if I put it in italics it would work.

Jediya

Yeah I don't think it's in the dictionary but it's in all the bird books and some fiction books (like Animorphs) I have. I think it's usually in italics or inverted commas frm what I remember off the top of my head.

Betsie

What an interesting thread - it's good to see an elusive word dug up and brought to the surface and put to good use

BuickMackane

'Tseer' is definitely the eagle's call, I've read many a bird book, I'm associating it with a stilletto heel, cutting through the silence

Nena

[quote=Betsie]What an interesting thread - it's good to see an elusive word dug up and brought to the surface and put to good use[/quote]

I'm glad I started it, Betsy. I knew there'd be someone amongst you clever lot who could give me the word I wanted...two, in fact, because I still like EG's word, too. I hope someone else can use the same thread to find a word they need!

Thanks Jediya and EG. Thanks, everyone! :)

Wordy

Just checked a bird book I had to hand and it suggests Golden Eagles are generally silent but make a mewing call wee-o (written in italics) not unlike a buzzard. We have Red Kites overhead quite often and their cry is described as mewing, too. It is a very small sound for such a magnificent bird. You somehow expect something more powerful.

Liz

[quote=Nena]No wonder Shakespeare had to make up so many![/quote]

This is a moot point. Apparently there were many words in use in the general population that just hadn't been recorded in words... ones which scholars in particular would not have used, but which were in use among the masses as it were. He may not have actually made up as many as has been indicated.

Liz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bexop7ZOPP8

At the beginning this has rather a good sound of an eagle.

It's a hard sound to describe. Could there be a word in Tolkein? Don't know what this occurs to me.

Liz

OH has just read out to me from 'The Peregrine' by J A Baker, 'he called once, a sound as final as the clanging of a portcullis'.

Maybe you should try thinking up a description instead of a word?

Liz

Also from the above book 'sharp edged and barbarous'.

Jan

An intriguing query that has taxed my need to ponder a satisfactory answer. Thank you {I think} Nena.

It is presumed you sought a word to provoke implicit comprehension in your readers’ ear. As has already been illustrated in other folks’ suggestions, there is tendency for different heads to interpret the same event in alternate manner.

To select an onomatopoeic reference for such a beautiful sound is likely to fail the effect you desire to create. Unless you are writing a factual biography, the intention is to provoke the illusions to which that call alludes. It is the timbre of the querulous cry that, I imagine, you wish to shiver through one’s spine or stir hair on nape of neck.

Pulchritudinous is probably too unwieldy a word. Fricative, or fractious, lament might fall short of the tingle you wish to prompt. Such words as strophe or defining a ‘sibilant harmonic’ also fail to conjure full effect of the forlorn or plaintive euphony. The keening lament is more joyful, strident, than the pule or skirl at a coronach.

Should none of the foregoing spark what you seek, perhaps the “barbaric yawp” of Walt Whitman is more appropriate. He used the phrase to describe himself in the last verse of his poem “Song of Myself”.
“The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me—he complains of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable;
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world. …..”
The fifty two verse poem is a series of vignettes expressing his interpretations of life observations. It was first published in 1855 as one of the twelve poems in “Leaves of Grass”.

It will be satisfying to read your final choice of description, good luck.

Claudia

I've copied and pasted your post into a Word document, Jan so that I can absorb it fully - hope you don't mind!

Nena

Ah, Jan, I should have known that this thread would stir your wisdom with words. You've given some great ideas there, thank you! But maybe I need to explain the context of what I'm wanting, because it's not what it seems. As you know, I write fantasy. So in my book there are creatures that look half-man/half eagle. Their 'song', along with the voices of six other mythical creatures, once vanquished an evil spirit and sent it into the earth. Now part of that spirit has escaped and is growing strong inside one of my characters. He's been captured and this eagle/man is sitting beside the cage, quietly making that sound that eagles make when they fly to keep the spirit subdued until another character is ready to 'do his bit'. Later in the novel they will do the 'singing' again, but loudly, to send the spirit back to its prison. So 'tseer' or 'piping' really fit the sitting quietly part and some of your ideas fit the ending well.

I've never thought of the sound as barbaric. To me it's a joyful sound; as if the bird gathers the beauty of the sky, the breeze and the mountains and turns them into sound. There was a wedge-tailed eagle calling above the mountain when my husband proposed to me, so maybe that has coloured how I think of it!

Betsie

[quote=Jan]Should none of the foregoing spark what you seek, perhaps the “barbaric yawp” of Walt Whitman is more appropriate. He used the phrase to describe himself in the last verse of his poem “Song of Myself”.[/quote]

Thanks Jan - that sounds inspirational - I'm off to find a copy

Jan

[quote=Nena]maybe I need to explain the context[/quote]
That is downright 'unfair'; you had better hurry up and get it available for reading. You describe a captivating scenario.

[quote=Nena]the bird gathers the beauty of the sky[/quote]
You receive no contradiction from me neither do I think Walt Whitman had any argument. He is quoting the "yawp" of his own vocal chord as "barbaric" when compared to the screel or skirl of the "accusing" bird of prey.

[quote=Betsie]I'm off to find a copy[/quote]
Hope you were rewarded with enjoyment of Walt Whitman's interpretations. There appear to be several websites freely broadcasting his works so I don't think a link needs posting here. Please shout, should you experience any difficulty finding what I consider image provoking manipulation of words.