English
stun
Stun comes from Middle English stonen ‘to astonish, shock, or stupefy’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stonen‘to astonish, shock, or stupefy’
- Englishearliest quotation 1966stun
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500stonen‘to astonish, shock, or stupefy’
- Englishearliest quotation 1966stun
Earliest quotation: 1966, George Clayton Johnson, The Man Trap (Star Trek): “Captain James Kirk: "Set your phaser on one quarter.…”
The story
Inherited from Middle English stonen, stone (“to astonish, stun, numb”, also stoneyen), probably either directly or indirectly from Anglo-Norman estoner (‘to stun, astonish’), from Late Latin *stunāre, from Frankish *stunōn (‘to thunder, crash’) or perhaps from an unattested Latin *extonāre (‘to thunder out, make a thunderous sound’), from tonāre ("to thunder"; compare Latin attonāre). An alternative etymology derives stonen from Old English stunian (‘to smash, thunder’), from Proto-West Germanic *stunōn.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)tenh₂- ‘to thunder’
through Latin tonō ‘to thunder’
tornado, detonation, detonate, intonation, 6 more
through Middle English stonen ‘to astonish, shock, or stupefy’
Today it means
verb To incapacitate; especially by inducing disorientation or unconsciousness.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English stonen / stun