Etymologically
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mound

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Pronunciation

Etymology

Its origin is unknown or uncertain.[2][3][4][5][6] The OED suggests it may be a special use of the Middle English noun mund, mund (“hand; protection, guardianship”), and compares the isolated Old English mundbeorg (“protecting hill”).[4] Etymonline notes that this derivation is often given but that the OED doubts it on grounds of sense,[6] and suggests a confusion of the native word with Middle Dutch mond (“protection”), which was used in military language for fortifications, including earthworks.[6] Klein and Partridge derive it from the Middle Dutch word, a relative of Old Norse mund (“hand”) and Old High German munt (“hand, protection”), and of Latin manus (“hand”).[7][8] Weekley also thought it a military word of the 16th century, confused with mount;[9] the OED and Etymonline agree that the sense of an embankment was influenced by mount.[4][6] Skeat derived it instead from Anglo-Norman mund, a variant of munt (“hill”), from Latin mōns (“mountain”).[10] The verb, from 1515, is formed from the noun in the OED,[4] while Barnhart and Hoad take the verb as the older word.[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hedge or fence, especially one forming the boundary of a field or garden: around 1500 in the OED,[4][3] in the 1550s in Etymonline.[6] The verb, to enclose with a fence or hedge, is recorded from 1515.[4][11][6]

Semantic evolution

From the hedge the word passed to an embankment or dam forming a boundary (1613) and, in fortification, to a raised bank of earth or stones (1558).[4] The modern sense, an artificial heap of earth or stones, especially one raised over a grave, is recorded from 1635;[4] Etymonline dates it to 1726, and the sense of a natural low hill to 1810,[6] which the OED records from 1791.[4] From 1775 it was used of the earthworks built by prehistoric peoples of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys,[4] whose builders were called mound-builders by 1838.[6] The verb meant to enclose with an embankment from 1600, and to heap up from 1859, in Meredith's The Ordeal of Richard Feverel.[4][11] In baseball the mound is the slight rise where the pitcher stands, from 1912.[6][3] The old sense of a hedge or fence survives in the dialects of the English Midlands and the south.[4][13]

Timeline

  • c. 1500 – a hedge or fence forming a boundary.[4][3]
  • 1515 – verb, to enclose with a fence or hedge.[4][11]
  • 1558 – in fortification, a bank of earth or stones.[4]
  • 1600 – verb, to enclose or fortify with an embankment.[4][11]
  • 1613 – a bank, embankment or dam.[4]
  • 1635 – an artificial heap of earth, especially over a grave.[4]
  • 1775 – a prehistoric earthwork in North America.[4]
  • 1791 – a small natural hill.[4]
  • 1859 – verb, to heap up.[4][11]
  • 1912 – the pitcher's mound in baseball.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A raised heap of earth, stones or debris, especially one built over a grave or for defence: a burial mound.[14][3][4]
  2. Any heap or pile: a mound of washing.[14][4]
  3. A small natural hill; a hillock.[14][4]
  4. In archaeology, an ancient earthwork or a barrow.[14][4]
  5. In baseball, the slight rise from which the pitcher throws.[3][6]
  6. (dialect) A hedge or fence forming a boundary.[3][4][13]

Verb

  1. To pile up in a mound; to heap: She mounded the soil around the roses.[14][3][4]
  2. To cover or surround with a mound.[14][4]
  3. (archaic) To enclose with a fence or an embankment.[3][4]

Word family

  • moundbird
  • burial mound
  • mound builder

Usage notes

A different word mound, an orb forming part of royal regalia, comes from Middle French monde (“world”), mundus (“world”);[3][4][12][7] in Middle English it meant the world itself.[4][6][15]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ 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)
  14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press