For almost eight years, I've had a very loud and demanding cat. Like many cat guardians before me, I hear her sonorous cries as breakfast and dinner times draw closer, and I must take a moment to think about how much I love her so that I don't threaten her as she rubs against the spot where her bowl used to be.
She has become much noisier over the last week as a sense of curiosity, trepidation, and anxiety have washed over her with the smell of a new and strange feline. Of course, this kitty is a little different in the fact that she makes my rather submissive and prey-like kitty seem bold and commanding by contrast. However, because my husband and I take time at least twice per day to sit quietly in the room with the other kitty, my cat has turned to yowling loud enough that I'm sure at times, the entire world hears her pleas.
Sonorous | sä-nə-rəs: adjective: producing sound (as when struck); full or loud in sound; imposing or impressive in effect or style
I've always enjoyed the sound of the word, sonorous. It has a unique rhythm to it that reminds my imagination of a melody, and when I read it to describe things like music, voices, or bells, I can almost hear the melody bloom in my mind. What I love most about it is that it can be used to describe a great many things, and not all of those things have to be happy.
Sonorous can be used to describe great cries for help, pleas of mercy, or moving beyond just man and that which has been made by man, the sound of birds in the distance, or the cries of wolves before a hunt. It is so versatile in the way it can be used to describe noises.
Sonorous | sɑː.nɚ.əs: adjective: having a deep, pleasant sound
In this particular trail of definitions, I do think that Merriam-Webster Dictionary has the upper hand in describing all of the different ways that a word can be used, though, especially with that last definition. Sonorous does not always have to mean noise. It can mean something more. Not only can I respect that, but I actually enjoy it.
Of course, there is just something about how sonorous can be used to describe a noise. So, today's representation of the word, drawn once again from my book of the month, Moon Chosen, is used in the way of the main definition of the word.
Within a very few moments, the pup's quest was joined by music. Fist so faint that only the deep, sonorous sound of drums came rhythmically, as if to goad forward the tap, tap, tapping of her feet on the wooden walkway planks.
The entire scene that these sentences are drawn from stirs forth a sense of tension and wonder at the first mention of how canines and their Companions work. As I read it, I found myself standing there alongside that pup as she journeyed knowingly to her Companion. I could hear the drums and feel her footsteps almost as though they were my own. To describe the drums as sonorous gave me a feeling of how the drums would actually sound. It allowed me, as the reader, to be transported to that very moment.
I've heard before that readers will live a thousand lives before they die, and I do really believe that's true. I only hope to bring more lives into the cacophony available to readers who prefer the genre I enjoy so that some of the lives that happen inside my own imagination are drawn forth just like those sonorous drumbeats. Until then, though, happy reading!
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