Who invented onomatopoeia?

Words aren't invented the same way that items like the iPad are invented. Their origin is often traced back to a general time period. Sometimes, a specific person can be identified to have used a word in its earliest instance. In the case of onomatopoeia, usage is traced back to a general time period. Onomatopoeia is not a word, but a linguistic device. Onomatopoetic words sound like what they describe: "pop" and "crack," for example. The origins of onomatopoeia can be traced to the ancient Greeks.

Early Greek Origins

The word onomatopoeia comes from the Greek language. The Greek word "onoma" means "name," and the word "poiein" means "to make." Ancient Greece lasted from 800 B.C. to 500 B.C. In the journal "New Literary History," Hugh Bredin says that other early uses of onomatopoeia were found in the work of Quintilian in the first century and the work of Bed in the eighth century.