susurrus

Borrowed from Latin susurrus (“a humming, whispering”); reduplication of imitative Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to buzz, hum”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsuː.sə.ɹəs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsu.sə.ɹəs/, /səˈsəɹ.əs/

susurrus (plural susurruses)

1. (literary) A whispering or rustling sound; a murmur.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of De Quincey to this entry?)

   The soft susurrus and sighs of the branches. — Longfellow.

   • 2000, George R. R. Martin, A Storm of Swords, →ISBN, page 555:

     They heard the Green Fork before they saw it, an endless susurrus, like the growl of some great beast.

   • 2004, Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram: A Novel, →ISBN, page 613:

     I sipped at a drink and smoked cigarettes in a silence so profound that I could hear the susurrus of the blindfold's soft fabric rustle and slip between my fingers.

   • 2007, Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind, →ISBN, page 301:

     I walked steadily toward the pennant pole amid a sea of susurrus murmurings.

   • 2008, Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book, →ISBN, page 262:

     Bod could feel the Sleer listening to Jack's words, could feel a low susurrus of excitement building in the chamber.

• insusurration
• susurrant, susurrous
• susurrate
• susurration

Reduplication of imitative Proto-Indo-European *swer- (“to buzz, hum”). See also Latin surdus, Lithuanian surma (“a pipe”), Russian свире́ль (svirélʹ, “a pipe, reed”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /suˈsur.rus/, [sʊˈsʊr.rʊs]

susurrus m (genitive susurrī); second declension

1. whisper
2. murmur

Second declension.

• Italian: sussurro
• Spanish: susurro

• susurrus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• susurrus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• susurrus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette