Making a squealing sound; characterized by high-pitched noises or shrieking.
From a- + squeal, where squeal derives from Middle English 'squelen,' likely imitative in origin. The 'a-' prefix here marks a state of making a particular sound, another manifestation of the archaic adjectival prefix system.
Imitative words like 'squeal' are among the oldest types of words in any language because they directly copy sounds from nature—when you add 'a-' to 'squeal,' you're describing something that IS squealing right now, a grammatical distinction that feels natural but that we mostly abandoned in English.
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