Some words in English simply repeat themselves: the second part is identical with the first, pooh-pooh, or repeats the first part with a change of vowel, riff-raff, or of consonant, teeny-weeny. These are called reduplicative words. Here are some everyday English examples.
ORDINARY EXAMPLES
|
|
Repeating without change
|
|
bye-bye
|
hush-hush
|
haha
|
blah blah
|
girly girly
|
gaga
|
Repeating with change of vowel
|
|
flip-flop
|
mish-mash
|
nick-nack
|
pitter-patter
|
sing-song
|
see-saw
|
ping-pong
|
|
Repeating with change of consonant
|
|
hurdy-gurdy
|
mumbo-jumbo
|
walky-talky
|
hanky-panky
|
hotchpotch
|
higgledy-piggledy
|
hocus-pocus
|
criss-cross
|
argy-bargy
|
|
Babytalk |
|
tum-tum |
bow-wow |
night-night |
gee-gee |
boo-hoo |
wee-wee |
neigh-neigh |
moo-moo |
baabaa |
choo-choo |
Characters in the
Night Garden (children's TV show) |
|
Igglepiggle |
The Haa Hoos |
Makka Pakka |
Ninky Nonk |
Many attractive reduplicative words have died out or survive only in dialects. Here is a selection if you want to bring them back to life.
Obscure
words |
|
geepie-gawpie |
a shadow picture
(Orkney) |
kitch-witch |
a woman dressed
in a frightening way (East Anglia) (the name of a shop in
Colchester in the 2000s)
|
mal-scral |
a caterpillar
(Devon) |
holums-jolums |
all at once
(Warwick) |
whisky-frisky |
drunk on whisky
(American) |
borus-snorus |
happy go lucky
(Dorset) |
joukerie-cookerie |
trickery
(Scottish) |
hangy-bangy |
a good-for-nothing (Northumberland) |
hitherum-ditherum |
a drying wind
(Scottish) |
rumpum-scrumpum |
an instrument
like a banjo (Wiltshire) |
Formerly at homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c (alias Virgin), which is now defunct