Pssst! (Usage as a verb) [duplicate]

If you are in a quiet place and someone wants to get your attention by making the 'psst!' noise, how would you write this?

Does the following work?

"She heard a soft 'psst!' from somewhere in the basement shadows".

Is there a verb which properly articulates 'psst' without having to write it out?

Solution 1:

I can't say whether it fits your particular threshold for "wordness", but psst has itself seen use as a verb:

I was just rounding the fourth-floor landing when Claudia pssted at me from my mother's door (Dale Peck The Garden of Lost and Found, 2015)

“Oh my God.” Someone pssted next to Bree, shoving their phone into their neighbour's lap. “Have you SEEN this?" (Holly Bourne The Manifesto on How to be Interesting, 2014)

This happened to me on more than one occasion, being “pssted” at, and all I could do was smile, nod my head, and continue with my novice picking. (Russell Zanca Life in a Muslim Uzbek Village: Cotton Farming After Communism CSCA, 2010)

It was not just men psst, psst-ing at women. Men psst, psst-ed at men. Women psst, psst-ed at men. One day an older woman psst, psst-ed to ask if I would hold her arm and help her cross the street. (Lea Aschkenas Es Cuba: Life and Love on an Illegal Island, 2006)

These examples are fairly representative, but not exhaustive. There are also examples from the greater web, including a pssting hashtag.

This does seem to be a relatively recent usage; I didn't find any reliable hits in Google Books for pssted or pssting before the 21st century. There also doesn't seem to be any standardization of exactly how to write these—in "dubious quotes", hyphenated, or just plain verbed.

With all of these caveats in mind, I think the meaning is quite clear, especially in print, and the usage does seem to have at least a toehold, so if it works in your particular context I think it would be fine.

Solution 2:

Hiss is both an appropriate noun and verb:

Verb

To make a noise like a long s sound:
Why do snakes hiss?
The iron was hissing and spluttering.
People in the audience were hissing their disapproval.
​

To say something in a quiet angry way: "Shut up, Tom!" she hissed.

Noun

A sound like the letter s:
I heard a hiss and a pop as the cork came out of the bottle.

(Cambridge Dictionary)

Verb:

"She heard someone hiss at her from somewhere in the basement shadows".

Noun:

"She heard a hiss from someone somewhere in the basement shadows".