astound

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English astouned, also astoned,^[2][3][4] the past participle of astonen (“to stun, stupefy”),^[5][2][6] borrowed from Old French estoner (“to stun, daze”),^[6][3][7] from Vulgar Latin *extonō (“to leave thunderstruck”),^[8][3] from ex- and tonō (“to thunder”).^[3][8] Hoad assumes an unrecorded Anglo-Norman *astoné for Old French estoné,^[9] and the Middle English Dictionary likewise calls the verb Anglo-French.^[6] According to the OED, the vowel u of the participle was lengthened and then diphthongized as in bound, found, ground and round, which cut the form off from its verb and made it look like an independent adjective.^[10] The verb then arose about 1600, either from that adjective, or by taking astound as a contracted past participle, the view the OED favours because astounded is recorded earlier than the other parts of the verb.^[10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Shorter Oxford similarly speak of a back-formation.^[4][11] Etymonline also suggests an unetymological -d, as in sound.^[3] Ayto notes that astonish and stun go back to the same Old French verb.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Stunned, stupefied: about 1315, as an adjective, in Shoreham.^[10][12] Barnhart puts the participle astouned, astoned probably before 1300,^[2] and Etymonline about 1300.^[3] Etymonline dates the verb to the mid-15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The original meaning was physical, as the thunder in the Latin verb suggests: stunned or deprived of the senses.^[10][3] The adjective moved towards amazement about 1440, in Generydes,^[10] and is archaic in that sense now, as in Spenser's "as one astownd" and Scott's "dizzy and astound".^[12][4] The participle astounded is recorded from about 1540 in the sense "confounded with surprise and wonder".^[10] The verb went the same way: from 1600, in Fairfax's Tasso, it meant to stupefy, which died out by 1727,^[10][2] and it took its modern sense of striking with amazement in Milton's Comus (1637),^[10] although Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates that sense to 1592.^[4] Johnson (1755) called the word "now somewhat obsolete", and quoted Milton's "These thoughts may startle well, but not astound The virtuous mind".^[13] The English Dialect Dictionary records the adjective, meaning astonished, in Cheshire and Warwickshire.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1315 – adjective, stunned, stupefied (obsolete by 1590).^[10]
• c. 1440 – adjective, confounded, amazed.^[10]
• c. 1540 – astounded, amazed, confounded.^[10]
• 1600 – verb, to stupefy, to deprive of consciousness (obsolete by 1727).^[10][2]
• 1637 – verb, to shock with alarm, surprise or wonder.^[10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates this sense to 1592.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To overwhelm with amazement or surprise; to astonish: The young pianist's speed astounded the judges.^[7][4][10]
2. (obsolete, 1600–1727) To stun or stupefy.^[4][10][11]

Adjective

1. (archaic) Astounded, amazed.^[4][10][11]

Word family

• astoundingly
• astoundment
• astounding

Related words

• astonish
• stun
• astony
• thunder

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
7. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c 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)
13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.