phonaesthemephonesthemen.
/ˌfɒnəsˈθiːm/, U.S. /ˌfoʊnəsˈθim/ Linguistics.
A phoneme or group of phonemes having recognizable semantic associations, as a result of appearing in a number of words of similar meaning.
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phonaestheme1930
1930 J. R. Firth Speech vi. 50 The slack etymeme belongs to a much bigger group of habits we may call the sl phonæstheme.
1946 Word 2 83 Phonestheme is defined as a phoneme or cluster of phonemes shared by a group of words which also have in common some element of meaning or function, tho [sic] the words may be etymologically unrelated.
1957 Gen. Linguistics II. 55 Previous studies have erred in attempting to separate the long consonant phonesthemes from the other phonesthemes of the language.
1977 Word 28 305 Phonesthemes are considered to have meaning through their occurrence in words of a particular meaning.
1990 Comments on Etymol. 19 iv. 23 Many of the sniglets contain onomatopoeia, sound symbolism, or phonaesthemes that provide unconscious etymological clues.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1930