Trains are loud, and steam-powered locomotives probably louder than diesel-powered trains. But Julia Flynn Siler took that noise to a new level in her book, House of Mondavi. In the first chapter, she wrote of family patriarch Cesare Mondavi travelling to California:
"As their smoke-bellowing train transported the family across the Great Plains and the desert into California..."
So not only did Mondavi have to put up with rocking and rolling, clanking and clatter of the old train (not to mention cranky kids, sleepless nights and flatulent fellow travellers), but the smoke was yelling at him.
Billowing is what she was looking for.
bil·low (b
l
) n."A great swell, surge, or undulating mass, as of smoke or sound.
Dictionary.com tells us the origin:
1545–55; <>bylgja wave, c. MLG bulge; akin to OE gebylgan to anger, provoke
]
4 comments:
What a fun blog.
I love my old AP Style guide, especially the section on the difference between Burro and Burrow.
"A burro is an ass. A burrow is a hole in the ground. As a journalist, you are expected to know the difference."
I love that!
And the other great admonition:
"If your mama says she loves you, check it out."
I think I'm going to have to be a pain and disagree. I'm going to go with the opinion that she chose the word "bellow" as opposed to "billow" to evoke the image of the large, loud monster of a locomotive.
that's what you get for sending me to this fancy-shmancy college.
asthma attack waiting to happen
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