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1 Definition
Susurrus is a soft, whispering, or rustling sound, like murmured voices or leaves stirred by a light breeze.
2 In Use
A susurrus of hushed conversation moved through the theater as the lights dimmed.
3 Word Origin
[#~etymology_chain~#]Susurrus comes directly from Latin, where it meant a humming, whispering, or muttering sound, and is believed to be an onomatopoeic formation, one whose very sound imitates the soft noise it names. It passed into English largely unchanged in the seventeenth century, prized by writers for its sonic resemblance to the whisper it describes. Few borrowed Latin words have survived so intact, both in spelling and in the way they sound like their own meaning.
💡Fun Fact
Susurrus has become a favorite of poets and novelists precisely because saying it aloud produces something close to the sound it describes, a literary trick called onomatopoeia. It shows up in describing everything from wind through wheat fields to the murmur of a crowd before an announcement. The related adjective susurrous, and the rarer verb susurrate, extend the same hushing quality into other parts of speech. Because it is rare in everyday conversation but common in literary and nature writing, encountering susurrus often signals a passage aiming for atmosphere. Some sound designers and audio engineers have even adopted the term informally to describe layered ambient background noise.
