Word: hummed
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...wild roses, yarrow and wild strawberry and kitten ears and vetch. Though most campers swear that the forest is a world of green-muffled silence, it is actually full of noise: the constant cry of gulls and other water birds, the chit-chatter of squirrels and chipmunks and the hum of honey bees in the warm sun, the distant buzz of a motorboat, and the whine of a power saw biting into the big trees; the drone of an airplane far overhead, the growl of a lumber truck on a steep grade, the small talk of tiny birds...
...only Ralph Rackstraw hums a little. Babies hum at the breast, and mothers hum while rocking them. Children hum at play; workmen hum at work. No company is without its office hummer who strides the halls humming his favorite pop or Paganini. Pablo Casals hums while playing the cello. Why do humans hum? In the current Journal of Auditory Research, a psychiatrist offers a couple of answers...
...Peter Ostwald, 33, of the University of California School of Medicine, has for three years been studying human sounds. Ostwald says in effect that humans hum to soothe themselves mentally. Humming is frequently prompted by one of two subconscious impulses: 1) to achieve a back-to-the-breast association with mother, and its consequent feeling of security, or 2) to block out extraneous sounds when one is trying to concentrate...
...first motive - "thumbsucking without the thumb" - is predictably Freudian, the second is quite practical. The sound waves produced by humming are far more effective than the low volume would indicate. This is because humming is a "purer" tone. "When a person hums, he can blot out most of the sounds of speech," Ostwald reports. "Many hum to themselves while concentrating on tasks, particularly if these involve abstract thinking or fine motor skills...
Ostwald hastens to point out that humming is perfectly normal. Does he hum? "Of course. We all do. We have...