abuzz
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See also: a-buzz
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From a- (prefix indicating a condition or manner) + buzz (“feeling or rush of energy or excitement; major topic of conversation; widespread rumor; information spread behind the scenes”) or buzz (“to show a high level of activity and haste; to communicate in an undertone; to spread, as a report, by whispers or secretly; to talk to incessantly or confidentially in a low humming voice”).[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /əˈbʌz/
Audio (RP) (file) - Rhymes: -ʌz
Adjective[edit]
abuzz (comparative more abuzz, superlative most abuzz)
- (postpositive) Characterized by a high level of activity or gossip; in a buzz (“feeling or rush of energy or excitement”), buzzing.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:active
- 1859, Charles Dickens, “The Game Made”, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book III (The Track of a Storm), page 212:
- The court was all astir and a-buzz, when the black sheep—whom many fell away from in dread—pressed him into an obscure corner among the crowd.
- 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “The Night-school and the Schoolmaster”, in Adam Bede […], volume II, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book second, page 124:
- There's too many women in the house for me: I hate the sound of women's voices; they're always either a-buzz or a-squeak, always either a-buzz or a-squeak.
- 1879, T. DeWitt Talmage [i.e., Thomas De Witt Talmage], “The Sins of Summer Watering Places”, in The Masque Torn Off, Chicago, Ill.: J. Fairbanks & Co. [et al.], →OCLC, page 171:
- The long silent halls of sumptuous hotels are all abuzz with excited arrivals.
- 1902, Francis Lynde, “How a King’s Trooper Became a Wastrel”, in The Master of Appleby: […], New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, →OCLC, page 289:
- Now what a-devil has set this hornet's nest of theirs abuzz so suddenly?
- 1913 July, Peter B[ernhard] Kyne, “The Long Chance: The Tale of a Hat Ranch”, in Charles K[ellogg] Field, editor, Sunset: The Pacific Monthly, volume 31, number 1, San Francisco, Calif.: Southern Pacific Company, →OCLC, page 131, column 2:
- The town was abuzz with excitement for an hour, when the news became stale.
- 2005 June, Cory Doctorow, Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town[1], New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN; 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Tom Doherty Associates, 2006, →ISBN:
- It was coming up on the cusp of July and August, and he remembered boyhood summers on the mountain's slopes abuzz with blackflies and syrupy heat.
Translations[edit]
characterized by a high level of activity or gossip; in a buzz
References[edit]
- ^ “abuzz, adj.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2011; “abuzz, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading[edit]
- Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], →ISBN), page 8.