Etymology
1. "noise," c.1280,
soun, from O.Fr.
son, from L.
sonus "sound," from PIE
*swonos, from base
*swen- "to sound" (cf. Skt.
svanati "it sounds,"
svanah "sound, tone;" L.
sonare "to sound;" O.Ir.
senim "the playing of an instrument;" O.E.
geswin "music, song,"
swinsian "to sing;" O.N.
svanr, O.E.
swan "swan," prop. "the sounding bird"). The final
-d was established c.1350-1550 as part of a tendency to add
-d- after
-n-. The verb is attested from c.1300, from L.
sonare, from
sonus. First record of
sound barrier is from 1939.
Soundtrack is from 1929;
sound check is from 1977;
sound effects is 1909, originally live accompaniments to silent films.
"The experts of Victor ... will ... arrange for the synchronized orchestration and sound effects for this picture, in which airplane battles will have an important part." ["Exhibitor's Herald & Moving Picture World," April 28, 1928]
2. * Noun: from Middle English sownde, alteration of soun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sun, soun, Old French son, from accusative of Latin sonus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- (“to sound, resound”).
3. * Verb: from Middle English sownden, sounen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suner, sounder, Old French soner (modern sonner), from Latin sonō.
4. * The hypercorrect -d appears in the fifteenth century. (Compare dialectal drownd, gownd for the same development.)
5. Displaced native Middle English swei, from Old English swēġ, from Proto-Germanic *swōgiz. See: Anglo-Norman '
suner', Old French '
soner', Latin '
sonō'.
Verbs referencing "sound"
Ido sondar, Italian
sondare, Sanskrit
स्वनति.