With all due respect to Simon & Garfunkel, when you consider the sound of silence, you’ve probably thought “crickets”, the noisy insects that have somehow become synonymous with no sound at all. But how did crickets come to symbolize silence?
Well, this sense of the word “crickets” is so recent that it has yet to make it into the Oxford English Dictionary, though it does get plenty of coverage from Merriam-Webster, which added it to the dictionary in September 2023 with the definition being “a conspicuous lack of response”. The term likely evolved from your senses indicating a rural setting (which is way less noisy than the city) to any place or stretch of time that’s quiet enough that, in theory, only the sound of crickets could be heard. From there, crickets became a term for silence itself. Even screenwriters use it as cinematic shorthand for quiet country locations.
But we also use crickets to describe non-rural settings. When a standup comedian’s joke bombs? Crickets. When a teacher asks students a tough question? Crickets. When a band plays an unknown song instead of one of your favorite bangers? Crickets. Crickets equals a total non-reaction. Crickets are the patron critters of silent awkwardness.
But “crickets” is somewhat of a paradoxical term, though, isn’t it? The way we primarily use it nowadays implies silence. Yet it does so by literally referencing one of the noisiest little creatures around! (Did you know that a cricket’s chirp can be as loud as 100 decibels? That’s about as loud as a snowmobile!). Even the word “cricket”, itself, imitates the noise the insect makes. There are even some older, mostly obscure expressions that used to reference crickets’ over-exuberance: “lively as a cricket”, for instance, or “merry as a cricket”…both were Old English phrases that were used in the early 1500s. But fast-forward to 1815, and writer J. Mathers was describing one particularly happy & satisfied fellow by saying: “I slept sound, ate & drank heartily, grew as merry as a cricket & as fat as a porker.” So, from the 1600s on, “crickets” had taken on a different sense of the word, meaning “merry or lively persons”. And, oddly enough, that usage can still occasionally be found in various publications even today.
So, give the simple cricket its due: it can signify merriment & noise…or awkwardness & silence. And that ain’t too shabby for such a humble little insect.
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