ronki

A word that is a noise. Ronki belongs to the small class of roots where the pronunciation is the definition: say it out loud and the -onk- in the middle does the job. Esperanto has a decent shelf of these, and they behave the same way in every language that has them because they were never really borrowed, only re-imitated. Bleki is for an animal's cry, grunti to grunt, zumi to buzz or hum, krii to shout, blovi to blow. The interjections and onomatopoeia article collects the set.

Two senses, and the second is the useful one. The first is the obvious one: a sleeping person snores. The second is anything that makes a heavy, regular, low noise - an engine, a motorboat, a fire, a rough sea. La motoro ronkas is ordinary Esperanto and there is no better verb for it. English splits this across snore, rumble, chug, throb and roar; the Esperanto root simply describes the sound and lets the subject decide what it is called in translation.

The register is comic, and that is fine. Snoring is funny in every language and Esperanto does not pretend otherwise. Ronkulo is a snorer, ronkado is snoring as an ongoing activity, and ronketi with the diminutive is the gentle kind you can sleep through. The proverb collection has a good deal to say about husbands.

Two neighbours not to mix it with. Ronki is not spiri, which is simply to breathe and carries no noise at all, and it is not snufi, which is sniffing through the nazo while awake. Snoring needs sleep, or an engine.