Forms: α. 4 sun(e, 4–5 son(e, 4–5, 6 Sc. sovne, 4–6 soun(e, sownn(e, 5–6 sown(e, 6 Sc. sounn. β. 5–6 sownd(e, 6 sounde, 5– sound. [a. AF. soun, OF. sor (= Prov. son, so, Sp. son, Pg. som, It. suono):—L. sonum, acc. of sonus sound. Cf. OE. són, ON. sónn, MDu. son, soen, from Latin or early OF.
The form with excrescent -d finally established itself in the 16th cent., but is condemned by Stanyhurst as late as 1582 (Æneid, To Reader, p. 11).]
1. The sensation produced in the organs of hearing when the surrounding air is set in vibration in such a way as to affect these; also, that which is or may be heard; the external object of audition, or the property of bodies by which this is produced.
α. a. 1300–1400. Cursor M., 17288 + 101. When þat our lord vp-rose þe erthe quoke & made sown.
a. 1330. Roland & V., 708. As þe harp has þre þinges, Wode & soun & strenges.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, 765 (Fairf.). Sovne ys noght but eyre ybroken.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 4241. His instrumentis wolde he dight, For to blowe and make sowne.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. viii. 187. That is to seie, that speche and soun be mad in the ymage bi an aungel of God.
1513. Douglas, Æneid, I. ii. 4. Ane brudy land of furious stormy sownn.
β. c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 466/1. Sownde, or dyne, sonitus, sonus.
c. 1450. in Aungier, Syon (1840), 379. Whan they haue any nottes … they schal open them softly … and beware of sownde.
1530. Palsgr., 273/1. Sounde, noyse, son.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. viii. 11. He loudly brayd with beastly yelling sound.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. v. 216. It [silver] passeth golde in brightnesse, beauty and sound, the which is cleere, and agreeable.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 522. Linnets fill the Woods with tuneful Sound.
1744. Harris, Three Treat., Wks. (1841), 30. In music, the fittest subjects of imitation are all such things and incidents as are most eminently characterized by motion and sound.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 64. Over the surface of smooth water, sound is conveyed admirably well.
1874. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., v. 142. Sound travels at the rate of 1090 feet in a second of time, when the air is at freezing point.
† b. Music, melody. Obs.
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 2857. Alle maner soun And gle Of minestrals vp and doun Bifor þe folk so fre.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., II. xi. Terpsichore the fyft with humbill soun, Makis on psalteris modulatioun.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Jas. I., ix. In liberall artes, in instrumentale sowne.
2. The particular auditory effect produced by a special cause.
α. 1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 5750. A voys sede as him þoȝte þes wordes þoru þe soun.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 4971. Fra þe tyme þat þai þe son sal here.
1390. Gower, Conf., I. 294. So lowde his belle is runge, That of the noise and of the soun Men feeren hem in al the toun.
c. 1400. Sowdone Bab., 437. Through the Cite wente the sowne, So lowde than gan he yelle.
c. 1500. Lancelot, 1035. To warnnyng them vp goith the bludy sown.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 108. By the … plashyng or soune that it gave in the falle.
β. c. 1480. Henryson, Orpheus & Eurydice, 140. Throu suetenes of the sound, The dog slepit and fell vnto the ground.
c. 1580. J. Hooker, Life Sir P. Carew, in Archæologia, XXVIII. 144. The trumpeter, clothed in blacke, soundinge the deade sounde.
1609. Dekker, Gull’s Horn Bk., Wks. (Grosart), II. 253. Throw the cards … round about the Stage, iust vpon the third sound, as though you had lost.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 78. From Hills and Dales the chearful Cries rebound: For Echo hunts along, and propagates the Sound.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., VIII. i. (1862), II. 243. It is rather the vibrations of the sound that affect the water by which they are excited, than any sounds that they hear.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xi. Let us hasten on, for the sound will collect the country to the spot.
1839. G. Bird, Nat. Philos., 127. The intensity of sound is modified … by the original direction of the sound.
b. Const. of, or with possessives. (Cf. 3 b.)
α. a. 1300. Cursor M., 12195. Als a chim or brasin bell, Þat noþer can vnderstand ne tell Wat takens þair aun sune.
c. 1300. St. Brandan, 383 (Percy Soc.). The Soun of him [v.r. of his wyngen] Murie was.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, 1642. This foule trumpes soun.
c. 1460. Sir R. Ros, La Belle Dame, 123. Lyke as þe sownne of birdis doth expres whanne thei synge lowde.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 221 b/2. He was said the sone of thondre by cause of the soune of his predycacion.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 81 b. A potte … well tryed by ye tyncklyng and soune thereof.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 41. The sowne Of swarming Bees.
β. 1480. Robt. Devyll, 456, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 236. Of theyr prayers to heauen wente the sownde.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 120. If they here the sound of the bel, they runne thither streight.
1585. T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy., IV. xxvi. 145. Their countenance [is] furious, and the sound of their voyce fearefull.
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. 84. I sensibly heard … the sound of the vollies of shot in that skirmish.
1669. Dryden, Tyrannic Love, I. i. Like the hoarse murmurs of a trumpet’s sound.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, l. In a low … tone, as if the sound of his own voice frightened him.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xiv. He listened to every noise in the street…, and endeavoured to distinguish in it the sound of hoofs or wheels.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 379. But with boasts like these was mingled the sound of complaint and invective.
1866. G. Macdonald, Ann. Q. Neighb., xxvii. (1878), 466. As soon as I ceased to hear the sound of their progress.
c. Similarly with omission of the.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 1031. Þar … es … Sune of santes þat þar singes.
c. 1385. Chaucer, L. G. W., 2615, Hypermnestra. Ful is the place of soun of menstralsye.
14[?]. Lat.-Eng. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 572. Diaphosia,… soun of voys.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxiii. 50. Vnto no mess pressit this prelat, For sound of sacring bell nor skellat.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 10 Feb. 1635. After sound of trumpets and silence made.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., Pref. p. iii. Things, which … they ought rather to publish at sound of Trumpet.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxvii. With sound of bugles, broaching of barrels, and all the freedom of a silvan meal.
1842. Tennyson, Godiva, 36. She sent a herald forth, And bade him cry, with sound of trumpet, all The hard condition.
d. The distance or range over which the sound of something is heard. In phr. in or within the sound of (something).
1617. Minsheu, Ductor, s.v. Cockney, One borne within the sound of Bow-bell.
1712–4. Pope, Rape Lock, IV. 118. Sooner shall grass in Hyde-park Circus grow, And wits take lodgings in the sound of Bow.
1852. M. Arnold, The Future, 16. Whether he first sees light Where the river … winds through the plain: Whether in sound of the swallowing sea.
3. A particular cause of auditory effect; an instance of the sensation resulting from this.
α. a. 1300. Cursor M., 18320. All þai sang þus, wit a sun.
13[?]. K. Alis., 1183 (W.). He blowith smert and loude sones.
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 215. Thou shalte haue many rynnynge engyns to make horribill Sownes to gasten thyn enemys.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, II. i. He casted to them a grete pyece of wood, whiche maade a grete sowne and noyse in the water.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Sonus, To heare sownes or noyses.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. v. 30. A gentle streame, whose murmuring waue … made a sowne, To lull him soft a sleepe.
β. 1483. Cath. Angl., 349/2. A Sownde, crepitaculum, crepitus, crepor.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 78. He shall gyue a swete syluer sounde.
1562. Winȝet, Wks. (S.T.S.), I. 37. Thre sindry soundis blawin almast at ane tyme.
1609. Dekker, Gull’s Horn-bk., iii. 15. The eares are two Musique roomes into which as well good sounds as bad, descend.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xiii. (1695), 85. To feign a Knowledge … by making a noise with Sounds, without clear and distinct Significations.
1709. Tatler, No. 81, ¶ 2. There was heard … a Sound like that of a Trumpet.
1754. Gray, Progr. Poesy, 76. Ev’ry shade and hallow’d Fountain Murmur’d deep a solemn sound.
1815. Byron, ‘My soul is dark,’ i. If in this heart a hope be dear, That sound shall charm it forth again.
1851. Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 341. Concurrently with the impulse of the heart against the chest, a dull and prolonged sound is heard.
1885. J. Payn, Talk of Town, I. 156. Mr. Erin muttered an articulate sound such as a bumble-bee makes when imprisoned between two panes of glass.
b. Const. of, or with possessives. (Cf. 2 b.)
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23303. Þan sal þai here þe sunes O nedders bath and of draguns.
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 1874. Ich here a menstrel, to say, Of tristrem he haþ a soun.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 51. With a clere sowne of plate and of coyngnage.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, III. vii. (1883), 141. He herde the sownes of musique right melodious.
c. 1500. Lancelot, 772. The trumpetis … blawen furth ther sownis.
1705. Addison, Italy, 3.
| Oft in the Winds is heard a plaintive Sound | |
| Of melancholy Ghosts, that hover round. |
1832. W. Irving, Alhambra, I. 68. A murmuring sound of water now and then rises from the valley.
1869. Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 283. Popular tales … are the lingering sounds of world-old myths.
† c. A musical tone. Obs.–1
1662. Playford, Music, 9. Making them half a tone or sound lower than they were before.
4. In restricted sense: The auditory effect produced by the operation of the human voice; utterance, speech, or one of the separate articulations of which this is composed.
(a) a. 1300. Cursor M., 11685. Vnnethe had he said þe sune [= the words], Quen þe tre it boghed dune.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 532. He … sayde to hem with sobre soun; ‘Wy stonde ȝe ydel þise dayez longe?’
1385. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 161. Hit semeþ a greet wonder how … her owne langage and tonge is so dyuerse of sown in þis oon ilond.
c. 1420. Pol., Rel., & L. Poems (1903), 240. Ȝet þei answerid with dollefulle sone.
1575. Gascoigne, Certayne Notes, Wks. 1907, I. 467. Remembre to place every worde in his natural Emphasis or sound.
a. 1586. Sidney, Ps. XVII. iii. Then by thee, [I] was guiltlesse found From ill word, and ill meaning sound.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 557. Deni’d To Beasts, whom God on thir Creation-Day Created mute to all articulat sound.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 365. ’Tis not enough no harshness gives offence, The sound must seem an Echo to the sense.
1746. Francis, trans. Horace, Epist., II. i. 171. He forms the Infant’s Tongue to firmer Sound.
c. 1825. Whately, in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), I. 279/1. The Choice of words, with a view to their Imitative, or otherwise, Appropriate sound.
1867. Trans. Philol. Soc., 82. On the sound of initial th in English. Ibid. The … two varieties of sound, which we now represent … by the digraph th.
(b) 1593. Shaks., Lucr., 1017. Idle words,… Unprofitable sounds.
1663. S. Patrick, Parab. Pilgrim, iv. (1687), 13. But when he speaks, his words are more than sounds, and have a sting in them which pierces the very heart.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xli. The remnants of an old prophecy, or song, or rhyme;… it is a strange jingle of sounds.
1867. Trans. Philol. Soc., Suppl. 1. On Palaeotype, or the representation of spoken sounds … by means of the ancient types.
1894. W. Lindsay, Latin Lang., 1. If an alphabet is to express the sounds of a language properly, each nation must construct one for itself.
b. The audible articulation(s) corresponding to a letter, word, name, etc.
c. 1400. Maundev. (Roxb.), vii. 27. Þe letters and þaire sounes and þaire names.
1530. Palsgr., 3. E in frenche hath never suche a sownde as we use to gyve hym in these wordes [etc.].
c. 1620. A. Hume, Brit. Tongue (1865), 7. Quhat was the right roman sound of them [the vowels] is hard to judge.
1779. Mirror, No. 64. My ears were now familiarized with the sounds of Duke, Marquis, Earl.
1825. Scott, Talism., xxv. The very sound of the name of a royal maiden.
1892. Stevenson, Across the Plains, i. 11. None can care for literature in itself who do not take a special pleasure in the sound of names.
c. Used with implication of richness, euphony or harmony.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 116. Woordes that fill the mouthe and haue a sound with them, set forthe a matter verie well.
1614. Brerewood, Lang. & Relig., 131. The last letter of the first word cut off in the Greek pronunciation for sounds sake.
1780. Mirror, No. 110. Blackfriars-wynd can never vie with Drury-lane in point of sound.
1781. Cowper, Table-T., 516. If sentiment were sacrific’d to sound, And truth cut short to make a period round.
† d. Import, sense, significance. Obs.
In modern use there is an approach to this sense in phrases that indicate the mental impression produced by a statement, as in SOUND v.1 4.
a. 1614. Donne, Βιαθανατος (1644), 165. A private man in a just warre, may not onely kill, contrary to the sound of this Commandement, but hee may kill his Father, contrary to another.
a. 1656. Hales, Gold. Rem., I. (1673), 56. I have heard a proverb to this sound [etc.].
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, 18 Aug. 1673. [He said] ‘No, Mr. E…, I will never see this place, this Citty or Court againe,’ or words of this sound.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 95. As for being deliver’d, the Word had no Sound, as I may say, to me.
e. Mere audible effect, without significance or real importance.
1605. Shaks., Macb., V. v. 27. A Tale Told by an Ideot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., I. iii. § 18. 23 (J.). Let us consider this Proposition as to its meaning, (for it is the sence, and not sound, that is and must be the Principle or common Notion).
1775. Johnson, Tax. no Tyr., 33. That a free man is governed by himself … is a position of mighty sound; but every man that utters it … feels it to be false.
1806. Med. Jrnl., XV. 55. The reason … might in sound be plausible enough, but it certainly was of no benefit.
5. Fame or knowledge, report or rumor, news or tidings (of some thing or person). Obs. exc. arch.
1413. 26 Pol. Poems, xii. 86. Of noblay þey han lore þe sown.
1436. Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 164. They have also ransonned toune by toune, That into the regnes of bost have ronne here soune.
1545. Joye, Exp. Dan. ii. D vij. When the sowne of the gospell shall be blowne abroade into every lande.
1586. A. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 26. Such odde kinde of reports,… the least whereof would make you storme to the gale, if a man should but ouer-slip himselfe in giuing any manner of sound of you.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 454. God gives the word—the preachers … spread the glorious sound.
1808. Scott, Marm., VI. vii. Fame of my fate made various sound.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, II. xiii. Until the mighty sound Of your career shall scatter in its gust The thrones of the oppressor.
b. dial. With a: A rumor.
1899. Raymond, No Soul above Money, II. i. 180. He had a-heard a sound that there wasn’t enough stock on the farm.
6. attrib. and Comb. a. Simple attrib., as sound-alarm, -change, -distinction, -element, etc.
Freq. in reference to vocal sound.
1843. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., VI. 146/2. Improvements in breakwaters, beacons, and *sound-alarms.
1866. G. Stephens, Runic Mon., I. p. xxxvii. The law of *sound-change in certain given dialects or languages at certain given periods.
1884. Sweet, in Philol. Soc. Trans., 598. The imperfect *sound-distinctions of Saxon Germans.
1884. W. H. Ward, in Century Mag., XXVII. 819/1. The highest art in the *sound-element of poetry.
1881. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., V. 298. The existence of *sound-organs … implies a corresponding development of the sense of hearing.
1888. E. Clodd, Story Creation, xi. 215. Tribes whose stock of *sound-signs is so limited that they cannot understand each other in the dark.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (1879), I. x. 307. The necessity of employing *sound-signals in dense fogs.
1884. Sweet, in Philol. Soc. Trans., 599. The richness of our *sound-system.
1867. Tyndall, Sound, i. 19. The *sound-waves, travelling through a homogeneous atmosphere, reached the ear, undiminished by reflection.
b. With agent-nouns, vbl. sbs., and pres. pples., as sound-carrier, concentrator; sound-conducting, -exulting, -making, -producing, etc.
1888. E. Clodd, Story Creation, xi. 216. The … languages of civilised races, the *sound-carriers … of the lofty conceptions which are enshrined in prose and poetry.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 832/1. *Sound Concentrator and Projector.
1853. Markham, Skoda’s Auscult., 93. In consequence of the *sound-conducting power of the tissue being increased by its condensation.
1820. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., IV. 333. My cloven fire-crags, *sound-exulting fountains Laugh with a vast and inextinguishable laughter.
1875. Whitney, Life Lang., ii. 10. By imitation of the *sound-making persons around him.
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, II. xi. (1890), 327. In two families of the Homoptera … the males alone possess *sound-producing organs in an efficient state.
1894. Times, 27 Jan., 4/3. The adoption of *sound-reading in the English telegraph offices.
1892. Wright, Gothic Primer, § 109. The first *sound-shifting, popularly called Grimm’s Law.
1876. Douse, Grimm’s L., 151. K pure must have been … the original single parent sound from which the impure K’s were derived—one by ordinary *sound-weakening, and the other by Reflex Dissimilation.
7. Special combs.: sound-bar Mus. (see quot.); sound-body Mus., the hollow part of a stringed instrument which strengthens its sound; sound-bow, the thickest part of a bell, against which the hammer strikes; sound-box, sound-body; also in a gramophone, the box that carries the reproducing or recording stylus; sound-hand, a system of shorthand based on a phonetic representation of speech-sounds; sound-house (see quot.); sound-lore, the science of phonology; sound-proof a., preventing the passage of loud or disturbing sound or noise; hence sound-proofing vbl. sb.
1884. Haweis, My Musical Life, I. 225. The *sound-bar is a strip of pine wood running obliquely under the left foot of the bridge [of the violin].
1875. Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, *Sound-body.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 462/1. The *Sound Bow, the inner part of the Bell, from the lower ring to the top.
1857. in J. Timbs, Year-bk. Facts, 109. A bell of the usual proportions, in which the thickness of the upper or thin part is one-third of the sound-bow or thickest part.
1875. Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, *Sound-box.
1906. E. W. Scripture, Res. Exper. Phonetics, 16. Some experiments made on gramophone sound boxes indicate the necessity of changing the prevalent view of such vibrating diaphragms.
1837. Pitman (title), Stenographic *sound-hand.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 832/2. *Sound-house. A marine alarm station from which audible alarms or signals are given in foggy weather.
1871. Kennedy, Public Sch. Lat. Gram., 4. *Soundlore treats of the sounds and relations of Letters and Syllables.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 46/1. Movable *Sound-proof Partitions for dwelling-houses, schools, &c.
1894. Daily News, 2 May, 3/3. Each of the class rooms … is made as far as possible sound proof.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 83/2. Models showing application of ‘Silicate Cotton’ for fireproofing and *soundproofing.
