»crepitation

Although crepitation seems to have a strictly medical denotation, I came across it in this sentence: "A crepitation, a pair of antennae against the sky on his right, heralded the arrival of the second snail."

crep·i·ta·tion (krĕp'ĭ-tā'shən): A rattling or crackling sound like that made by rubbing hair between the fingers close to the ear; The sensation felt on placing the hand over the seat of a fracture when the broken ends of the bone are moved, or over tissue in which gas gangrene is present; The noise produced by rubbing bone or irregular cartilage surfaces together, as in arthritis; A noise produced by the rubbing of fractured ends of bones, by cracking joints, and by pressure upon tissues containing abnormal amounts of air, as in cellular emphysema; The noise produced by a sudden discharge of wind from the bowels.

It is certainly a descriptive word, but I had no idea what it meant when I read that sentence; upon closer examination, I see that it comes directly into English from the Latin crepare, "to crack", whence also decrepit.