resound

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English resounen, also resownen,^[2][3] partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman resouner, also resuner, and resoner (modern French résonner), meaning to make a deep or echoing sound or to echo (about 1160 in Old French), and of a place to ring with sound,^[4][2] which is from Latin resonō (“to sound again, echo”),^[4][2][5] formed from re- (“back, again”) and sonō (“to sound”),^[2][5] from Proto-Indo-European *swen- (“to sound”).^[2][6] It is also partly formed from English re- + sound, after the French and Latin verbs;^[4][7][8] Hoad takes it simply as re- and Middle English sounen.^[9] The -d is excrescent, as in sound itself,^[4] and spellings with it appear from the mid-15th century.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a place, to ring or re-echo with some sound: about 1380, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius, according to Barnhart.^[5] The OED's first quotation is from Chaucer's Knight's Tale (written about 1385).^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Anglo-Norman the verb already meant to resound or reverberate and to be filled with the sound of something.^[10] The English verb was first used of places;^[2][4] from about 1425, in Lydgate, of an instrument or other thing making a deep or echoing sound,^[4] while from 1547 it was used of a voice or other sound that echoes.^[4] The figurative senses followed: of a person or reputation, to be much talked of or celebrated (1562), and of an event, to have a wide impact (1791).^[4] The transitive "to proclaim, celebrate" appears about 1550;^[4] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to echo; to sound back; to celebrate by sound".^[11] A noun resound, an echo or resonance, is recorded from before 1460.^[4][7]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – of a place, to ring or re-echo with sound.^[5][2]
• c. 1425 – to make a deep or echoing sound.^[4]
• before 1460 – noun, an echoed sound.^[4]
• c. 1550 – to proclaim or celebrate someone's praises.^[4]
• 1562 – of a person or reputation, to be celebrated.^[4]
• 1579 – transitive, of a place, to echo back a sound, in Spenser.^[4]
• 1791 – of an event, to have a wide impact.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of a place, to be filled with an echoing sound; to reverberate: The stadium resounded with the fans' singing.^[12][3][4]
2. Of a sound, to echo or ring loudly and for a long time: Thunder resounded across the valley.^[12][4]
3. To be widely known or celebrated; of an event, to have a great effect far and wide.^[12][3][4]
4. To proclaim or celebrate loudly: to resound the hero's praises.^[4][11]

Word family

• resounding
• resoundingly

Related words

• sound
• resonant
• resonance
• resonate
• sonorous

Usage notes

Dictionary.com lists re-sound, to sound again, as a separate formation from re- and sound, recorded from 1895–1900, and contrasts resound with the similar-looking rebound and redound.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
11. ^ 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.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House