Etymograph

English

sound

Sound (noise) comes from Middle English sownde, from soun, from Anglo-Norman soun, from Latin sonus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swenh₂-‘to sound, resound’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonus‘sound’
  3. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400soun
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  5. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500sownde
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590sound

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swenh₂-‘to sound, resound’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonus‘sound’
  3. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400soun
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form
  5. Middle English, derivedc. 1150–1500sownde
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1590sound

Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book I, Canto I: “So ſound he ſlept, that nought mought him awake.”

The story

Possibly related also to Dutch gezwind (‘fast, quick’), German geschwind (‘fast, quick’), Old English swīþ (‘strong, mighty, powerful, active, severe, violent’).

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂-

Another origin of sound

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swenh₂-‘to sound, resound’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*swónh₂osreconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*swonosreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonus‘sound, noise’next step skipped: Old French soner
  5. Anglo-Normanc. 1066–1400sun
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sownde
  7. Englishtodaysound

Another origin of sound

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swem-‘swimming’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sundą‘swimming’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sundreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sund‘the power, capacity, or act of swimming’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sound
  6. Englishtodaysame form

Another origin of sound

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400sonder
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500sounden
  3. Englishtodaysound

Today it means

adj Healthy.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- / sound

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