psst.

n.  the sound of a jet car flying past, as in the graphic novella Hearts and Minds by Scott McCloud.


n.  the sound of an office coffee machine that dispenses via hypodermic needle, in the comic book Hyperco by Aaron K.

psst psst.

n.  a beckoning sound.

<Don Quixote had reached this point in his piteous lament when the innkeeper’s daughter began to attract his attention by saying, “Psst, psst,” and calling to him: “Señor, please come here, if your grace doesn’t mind.”  —Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote.>

pssw.

n.  a hiss of steam, as from a street cleaning truck spraying roads and sidewalks with water; see also pfffff.

<Pssw!  Pfffff!  From the brown dry streets, steam sent up a sudden ejaculation and I saw it in each particle of light, saw all its constituent parts, vibrant, more alive than anything I had ever seen.  I watched this cloud, gravity-defying, soar upwards and dissolve into tendrils of mist, up, up into the sky, beyond brick and brownstone façades, treetops and the dusty-windowed towers beyond, each window of which caught refractions of multi-coloured brilliance.  —A.N. Wilson, Hearing Voices.>

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