resonant

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin resonāns (“sending back a sound, echoing”),^[2][3][4][5] the present participle of resonō (“to resound, to sound again”),^[2][3][4][6] formed from re- (“back”) and sonō (“to sound”),^[5][6] from sonus (“sound”).^[6] The ODE, the COED and the SOED allow French résonnant as a second source,^[7][8][9] and Johnson gave both the French and the Latin word.^[10] The OED takes only the phonetic sense from French; it notes Middle French resonnant (“resounding”) from 1538 and compares Catalan ressonant, Spanish resonante and Italian risonante.^[2] The same Latin verb is the source of resound.^[4][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of an object or room: reinforcing or prolonging sound: 1572, in J. Higgins's revision of Huloet's dictionary.^[2][11] Etymonline dates the word to the 1590s, of a sound, "re-echoing",^[3] a sense the OED and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate record from 1592.^[2][12]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined the word simply as "resounding", quoting Milton's "the resonant fugue".^[10] The scientific senses followed those of resonance:^[2] sound caused by acoustic resonance from 1799, electrical resonance from 1888, and chemical, magnetic or nuclear resonance from 1944.^[2] From 1810, in Southey, a place could be resonant with sound; in Shelley (1813) the word figuratively means filled with or strongly suggestive of something.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary records the extended sense of having a lasting, subtle effect beyond the first impression,^[13] and Merriam-Webster's Collegiate that of grandiloquent language.^[12] In phonetics the noun, a consonant made with free passage of breath, is recorded from 1845, and the adjective from 1879, after French.^[2] In art, from 1887, a colour is resonant when it is enriched by a contrasting colour beside it.^[2]

Timeline

• 1572 – of an object or room, reinforcing or prolonging sound.^[2][11] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1680s.^[3]
• 1592 – of a sound, echoing, resounding, rich.^[2][12]
• 1799 – caused by acoustic resonance.^[2]
• 1810 – resounding or echoing with sound.^[2]
• 1813 – filled with or strongly suggestive of something.^[2]
• 1845 – noun, in phonetics, a consonant made without friction.^[2]
• 1887 – in art, of colour enriched by contrast.^[2]
• 1888 – involving electrical resonance.^[2]
• 1944 – involving chemical, magnetic or nuclear resonance.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a sound or voice: deep, full and echoing; continuing to sound: His resonant baritone filled the chapel.^{[11][13][14][2]}
2. Of a body, room or material: tending to reinforce or prolong sound: The old barn had resonant wooden walls.^[11][2]
3. Relating to or showing resonance; tuned to respond to vibrations of a particular frequency.^[11][13][14]
4. Resounding with sound; evocative or strongly suggestive of something.^[2][13]
5. (phonetics) Of a consonant: produced with breath passing through the vocal tract without friction.^[2][9]

Noun

1. (phonetics) A speech sound, such as a vowel, semivowel, nasal or lateral, made without closure or friction; a sonorant.^[11][2]

Word family

• resonantly
• nonresonant
• unresonant

Related words

• resound
• resonance
• resonate
• sound
• sonorous
• sonant
• dissonant
• consonant

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 p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins