brekekekex

English

Alternative forms

• brek-kek-kex

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek βρεκεκεκέξ (brekekekéx), coined by Aristophanes in the comedy The Frogs.

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Interjection

brekekekex

1. (nonce word) Nonsense word supposedly imitative of frogs.
   • 1871, John Stuart Blackie, The Musical Frogs:

     Brekekekex! co-ax! co-ax! O happy, happy frogs!
     How sweet ye sing! would God that I
     Upon the sweet bubbling pool might lie,
     And sun myself to-day
     With you! No curtained bride, I ween,
     Nor pillowed babe, nor cushioned queen,
     Nor tiny fay on emerald green,
     Nor silken lady gray,
     Lies on a softer couch. O Heaven!

   • 1898, Harry Greenbank, Adrian Ross (lyrics), “A Frog he lived in a Pond”, in A Greek Slave:

     Iris:

     He warbled a plaintive rondo —

     Of brekekekex koax —

     Chorus:

     Koax!

     Iris:

     The other frogs thought it splendid,

     Most splendid —

     Chorus:

     Most splendid!

     Iris:

     Applauding him when he ended

     With brekekekex koax —

     Chorus:

     Koax!

Verb

brekekekex (third-person singular simple present brekekekexes, present participle brekekekexing, simple past and past participle brekekekexed)

1. To make a brekekekex sound; to ribbit.
   • 1977, Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts, page 306:

     There was not a fisherman on the river, not a peasant in the fields, nothing but those little vole-catchers and skimming wagtails, the waterbirds and the massed larks and the frogs, whose steady diurnal croak, though universal, seemed milder than the full-moon brekekekexing the night before.