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Dunt Dunt Dunt

"Dunt Dunt Dunt" is a colloquialism for a path that is significantly longer than the conventional route to a particular destination. Although a common misconception, a course that is similar in length to another but takes more time to travel through is not a dunt dunt dunt. A dunt dunt dunt must be substantially greater in measurable distance than the norm; it is a continuous path, composed of shorter lines, often caused by irrational direction changes. It can never be a single straight line to the destination. Resultantly, a route that is in a straight line but made more time consuming due to conditions that are adventitious to the length, such as traffic flow or terrain state, is not a dunt dunt dunt. As previously intimated, the expression is regularly used in this fashion but it is indeed erroneous.

Usage

While largely acceptable in speech and often used by travelers, the term should not be employed in formal speech or writing, by convention.

Origins

The explicit origins of the idiom are not known, but several specifics regarding it are widely accepted. The ethnography of many linguists has led to beliefs that it originated in Australia, sometime in the 2000s decade. The expression’s close resemblance to the more classically known term “zig-zag” has given rise to the now internationally trusted belief that it derives from the latter. A dunt dunt dunt typically consists of a tremendous farrago of connected lines at different angles to one another, and this is also true of a zig-zag pattern. However, several differences exists between the two terms, showing the purpose and arguable benefit of both to one’s lexicon. Firstly, a zig-zag consists strictly of straight lines, whereas a dunt dunt dunt often includes many curved lines. Additionally, a dunt dunt dunt is utilised exclusively to describe a path that can be travelled — it does not refer simply to such a shape, for instance a pattern drawn on paper that veers in many directions. Further to the origins of the colloquialism, linguists hypothesise that the repetition within it symbolises the alternation of directions that occurs in the application of the term. The application of repetition upholds the line of reasoning that proposed a connection between dunt dunt dunt and zig-zag. Although zig-zag does not precisely make use of repetition, it uses the associated rhetoric tool of reduplication — specific syllables are doubled to achieve a particular effect. In both cases, the outcome is the intimation of divergence. A link between the two that is less strongly accepted is the tool of alliteration. While both obviously do employ this literary effect, some linguists are skeptical as to how far this justifies the origin of one from another. Since alliteration is largely prevalent in written and verbal contemporary English, it is easily possible that this commonality is completely coincidental.

Changes Over Time

In its initial usage, the term was solely heard within Australia, where it was created. More recent times have seen it permeate other continents, and by 2008, it is an accepted expression in all English-speaking countries.