aloud

Etymology

It is formed from English a- + loud in Middle English,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} with a- in its sense "on", expressing manner, as in abroad.^[7][8][9] Etymonline takes it as a contraction of on loude,^[3] and the OED thinks it perhaps partly a reduced form of the phrase on loud;^[2] Ayto finds no Old English forerunner *on hlūd.^[7] Weekley thinks it was formed after the earlier ahigh and alow.^[10][2] Loud is from Old English hlūd (“noisy”),^[3][11] from Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz (“heard”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In a loud voice, loudly: before 1325, in the Southern Passion (composed about 1280).^[2] Etymonline dates "with a loud voice" to the late 13th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was "loudly", which is now archaic;^[2][12][13] by about 1390 it also meant simply "audibly, not in a whisper", and this is the main sense today, especially of reading aloud.^[2][3][12] Chaucer used it once and Gower five times.^[14] Johnson (1755) still defined it as "loudly; with a strong voice".^[15] Its opposite alow, "quietly", did not outlive the 15th century.^[7] From 1828 it was used colloquially for "very strongly" in to stink aloud, now rare;^[2] the phrase was recorded in Wiltshire, Somerset and Warwickshire dialect.^[16]

Timeline

• before 1325 – in a loud voice, loudly.^[2]
• c. 1390 – audibly, not in a whisper.^[2]
• 1806 – adjective, spoken or read aloud.^[2]
• 1828 – to stink aloud, to smell very bad.^[2][16]

Meanings

Adverb

1. In a normal speaking voice, so as to be heard; not silently or in a whisper: She read the letter aloud to her brother.^[13][12][4]
2. (archaic) Loudly, in a loud voice.^[12][13][4]
3. think aloud: to speak one's thoughts as they come.^[4]

Related words

• loud
• allowed
• abroad

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)