Pl. echoes, rarely echos. Also 4 ecko, 5–7 ecco, 6–8 eccho. [a. L. ēchō, a. Gr. ἠχώ, related to ἠχή sound.
The termination -ώ was common in Gr. female names, and perh. (as in the similar case of πειθώ persuasion), the form may be due to personification, although in Gr. literature it is used in an appellative sense much earlier than the mention of Echo as a distinct mythological person.]
1. A repetition of sounds, which is produced by the reflexion of the sound-waves due to their incidence on something denser than the aerial medium in which they are propagated; hence concr. a secondary or imitative sound produced by reflected waves, as distinguished from the original sound caused by the direct waves.
1340. Ayenb., 60. Ecko, þet is þe rearde þet ine þe heȝe helles comþ ayen and acordeþ to al þet me him sayþ.
1388. Wyclif, Wisdom xvi. 16. Ecco sownynge aȝen fro hiȝeste hillis.
1485. Caxton, Trevisa’s Higden, I. xxii. Ecco is reboundynge of noyse.
1571. Golding, Calvin on Ps. xxvii. 8. The voyce of God must resound … as it were an Eccho in holow places.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 581. This miraculous rebounding of the voice, the Greekes haue a pretty name for, and call it Echo.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 581. Which if considered in Audibles, then will the Second Hypostasis be look’d upon, as the Eccho of an Original Voice; and the Third as the Repeated Eccho, or Eccho of that Eccho.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. x. Round and around the sounds were cast, Till echo seemed an answering blast.
1877. Bryant, Lit. People of Snow, 313. Like echoes softly flung from rock and hill.
b. To applaud to the echo: i.e., so vociferously as to produce echoes.
1605. Shaks., Macb., V. iii. 53. I would applaud thee to the very Eccho That should applaud againe.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop (C. D. ed.), 77. The performance was applauded to the echo.
2. The cause of this phenomenon personified.
(In Greek mythology, Echo was regarded as an ‘Oread’ or mountain nymph.)
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. ii. 162. Else would I teare the Caue where Eccho lies, And make her ayrie tongue more hoarse.
1795. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Pindariana, Wks. 1812, IV. 161. And Echo, long banish’d, sweet Maid, Return’d with her stories of love.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 2. 15. The echos talked down to me from the mountain walls.
3. An artifice in verse, by which one line is made to consist of a repetition (such as might be given by a literal echo) of the concluding syllables of the preceding line, so as to supply an answer to the question contained in it, or otherwise to give a continuous sense. Hence, the name of the species of verse in which this was done. Also attrib., as in echo verse.
The most perfect modern example of this once fashionable device is Hugo’s Chasse du Burgrave, where every alternate line throughout a long poem is an ‘echo’ of the preceding line.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Heaven. But are there cares and businesse with the pleasure? Echo, Leisure.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. III. 85.
| Quoth he, O whether, wicked Bruin, | |
| Art thou fled to my—Echo, ruine? |
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 62, ¶ 3. False wit chiefly consists in the resemblance and congruity … sometimes of Syllables, as in Echos and Doggerel Rhymes.
1791–1824. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (1866), 263/2. A similar contrivance, that of Echo Verses, may here be noticed.
† 4. A response received or expected as a matter of course from the nature of the address. Obs.
1641. R. Carpenter, Experience, V. xx. 333. Give out, from the inwards of his heart and soule, with an Eccho, Amen.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), III. 300. Now the Eccho or Antiphony which these elegant Exclaimers hope … to draw necessarily from their Audience, is, ‘That, [etc.].’
5. fig. A repetition or close imitation, chiefly of things that can be compared to speech, voice, or sound (e.g., a writer’s thoughts or style), but occas. with wider meaning; an enfeebled reproduction; an effect that continues after its cause has ceased; and the like.
1622. Sparrow, Bk. Com. Prayer (1660), 211. Their Services are, as it were, so many Eccho’s and Reflexions upon the Mystery of Pentecost.
1632. Sanderson, 12 Serm., 465. God … also causeth the Eccho of that word to sound in our hearts.
1701. Swift, Contests Nobles & Com., Wks. 1755, II. I. 50. His folly, and his wisdom … are all of his own growth, not the eccho or infusion of other men.
1749. Power Numbers Poet. Comp., 60. The Sound is still an Eccho to the Sense.
1860. Farrar, Orig. Lang., i. 28. A feeble echo of splendours.
1878. B. Taylor, Deukalion, II. ii. 60. Was it some last echo blown From ended struggles?
6. transf. A person who reflects or imitates the language, sentiments or conduct of others; one who assents obsequiously to the opinions of another.
a. 1631. Donne, Poems (1650), 168.
| Then write, that I may follow, and so bee | |
| Thy debtor, thy eccho, thy foyle, thy zanee. |
1691. Satyr agst. French, 3. These Apes, these Echo’s … of Men, Shall be the present Subject of my Pen.
1732. Swift, Corr., Wks. 1841, II. 672. Clarendon, whom they reckoned the faithful echo of their master’s intentions.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., vi. Wks. (Bohn), I. 88. Better be a nettle in the side of your friend than his echo.
7. Music. (See quot.)
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4797/3. The lesser Organ … has in it 10 Stops and 4 Eccho’s.
1876. Hiles, Catech. Organ, i. (1878), 4. The Echo consisted of duplicates of some of the Treble stops of the other Manuals.
1879. E. J. Hopkins, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 21–2. The resources for … accompaniment were somewhat extended … by the insertion of an additional short manual organ called the Echo.
8. Whist. (See quot. 1876.)
1862. ‘Cavendish,’ Whist (1879), 268. The advantages of the echo are manifold.
1876. A. Campbell-Walker, Correct Card (1880), Gloss. 11. Echo, asking for trumps in response to your partner’s ask, when but for his demand you would not have called.
9. Comb., as echo-echoing, echo-giving ppl. adjs., echo-wise adv.; † echo-sound, a certain artifice in verse (see quot.).
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (Arb.), 210. Ye make one worde both beginne and end your verse, which therefore I call the slow retourne, otherwise the Eccho sound.
a. 1626. Bp. Andrewes, Serm., xix. (1661), 385. If it come from us directly; and not from Him to us first, and from us then to you (echo-wise).
1839. Bailey, Festus, xx. (1848), 259. Its echo-echoing walls at a whisper fall.
a. 1856. Longf., Sunrise Hills, 25. The echo-giving hills.
Hence Echoic a., of the nature of an echo; Echoism, the formation of words imitative of natural sounds; Echoist, one who repeats like an echo; Echoize v., † to repeat as does an echo (obs.); to form words imitative of sounds.
1600. Tourneur, Transf. Met., Prol. Wks. 1878, II. 187. The ecchoized sounds of horrorie.
1880. J. A. H. Murray, Addr. Philol. Soc., 20. Onomatopœia … I prefer to call echoism. Ibid., note. Echoism suggests the echoing of a sound heard, and has the useful derivatives echoist, echoize, and echoic.
