detonation

Etymology

It is borrowed from French détonation,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} a noun of action from détoner (“to detonate”).^[2][5][6] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster trace the French word to Medieval Latin dētonātiō,^[3][4] and Dictionary.com takes the English word directly from the Medieval Latin.^[8] The verb goes back to Latin dētonō (“to thunder down, thunder forth”),^[3][5][6] from dē- (“down”) and tonō (“to thunder”), related to thunder.^[3] Johnson (1755) referred it to the Latin verb.^[9] The English verb detonate came later, in 1729, as a back-formation from detonation or from the Latin past participle.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In chemistry, the loud noise that goes with the sudden decomposition or combination of substances: 1677, in W. Harris's translation of Nicolas Lémery's Course of Chymistry.^[2] Etymonline dates the sense "explosion with a loud noise" to the 1670s,^[3] and Merriam-Webster gives 1686.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a chemists' term for the report of an explosive reaction.^[2] Johnson (1755) quoted Boyle on the detonation of saltpetre.^[9] Etymonline notes that the sense "act of causing to explode", recorded in English from 1728, developed in French.^[3][2] From 1830 it was any loud report, as of a volcano.^[2] From 1878, in Browning, it could also be a sudden outburst of anger or other feeling.^[2] From 1912, in the Motor Manual, it was used for the premature combustion of fuel in an engine cylinder, which causes knocking.^[2][6] Merriam-Webster defines the technical sense as a reaction that moves through the explosive faster than sound.^[4]

Timeline

• 1677 – the noise of an explosive chemical reaction.^[2]
• 1728 – the act of causing a substance to explode.^[2]
• 1830 – a loud noise like thunder, as of a volcanic eruption.^[2]
• 1878 – figurative, a sudden outburst of feeling.^[2]
• 1912 – premature combustion of fuel in an engine.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An explosion, or the act of setting one off: Engineers carried out a controlled detonation of the old shell.^[10][4][6]
2. (chemistry) A very fast explosive reaction that moves through the material faster than sound, as in a high explosive.^[4][6][10]
3. Premature combustion of part of the fuel mixture in an internal-combustion engine, causing it to knock.^[10][2][6]
4. A sudden loud noise; figuratively, a sudden outburst of feeling.^[6][2]

Word family

• detonative

Related words

• detonate
• detonator
• thunder

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins