ssss ssss ssss ssss.

n.  “the idiosyncratic urgings of cowpokes” (Lawrence Scanlan, Wild About Horses: Our Timeless Passion for the Horse).

ssss tsss.

n.  a subtle sound betraying a person’s presence on the other end of an otherwise silent telephone line, as in Independence Day by Richard Ford.

sssss.

interj.  a hiss of frustration.

<“Sssss!” he hissed in frustration, swinging his head from side to side.  —Sara Douglass, Enchanter.>

n.  a “droning silence” like a long-drawn s-sound (Heshmat Moayyad, Stories from Iran: A Chicago Anthology 1921-1991).


n.  a philosophical conception of the “space” between tension and compression.

<Sssss is the between, the excluded middle, of tension and compression.  Even the form, S, is a marker of this.  Flaccidity, flow, or snake movement of alternating tension and compression.  —R. Shields, Anti-Methods: Expressive Forms of Researching Culture.>

n.  a prefatory whisper.

<“Sssss!”  A whisper prefaced all his remarks.  “I think—yes, by Heaven, I’ll make a saucier of you!”  —Idwal Jones, High Bonnet: A Novel of Epicurean Adventures.>

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