profound

Pronunciation

• IPA: /prəˈfaʊnd/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French profond (“deep”), also profund, and directly Latin profundus (“deep, bottomless, vast”),^[2][3][4][5] from prō (“forth, before”) and fundus (“bottom”) (see bottom and fund).^[2][3][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a person, showing intellectual depth, very learned: about 1300 in Barnhart and Etymonline, about 1305 in the OED.^[2][3][7] The NODE also says the sense of deep insight came first.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Latin used the word both literally and figuratively, but English, which already had deep, used it mainly in the figurative sense,^[3] though in the 15th century it was used of deep lakes and wounds.^[3] Physical depth is recorded from about 1407,^[2][7] deeply felt from about 1400,^[3] and intense or thorough, of a state or quality, from 1599.^[7] Of reverence or respect, often with the idea of bowing low, it is from 1526.^[7] A verb profound, to penetrate or fill, was used from the 15th to the 17th century.^[3] Profundity is probably from before 1425.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – very learned.^[2][3]
• c. 1400 – deeply felt.^[3]
• c. 1407 – physically deep.^[7]
• before 1425 – profundity.^[2]
• 1526 – of reverence.^[7]
• 1599 – intense, thorough.^[7]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Penetrating deeply into subjects or ideas: a profound mind.
2. Showing or needing great knowledge or understanding.
3. Coming from the depths of one's being: profound regret.
4. Intense or absolute: profound silence.
5. Thoroughgoing; far-reaching: profound changes.
6. Situated at or extending to a great depth.

Noun

1. (literary, archaic) A great depth; an abyss.

Word family

• profoundly
• profoundness
• unprofound

Related words

• profundity
• fund
• bottom
• found

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press