A soft, hissing sound used to get someone's attention quietly without alerting others nearby.
An onomatopoeia—a word that imitates the sound it represents. It's been used since at least the 1800s, created to mimic the actual hissing sound someone makes to whisper.
Psst is one of the few English words that's pure sound with no origin story—it exists because it works. It's a perfect example of how humans naturally create words by copying nature.
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