sonant

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sonāns (“sounding”), the present participle of sonō (“to sound”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which is related to sonus (“sound”)^[7] and comes from Proto-Indo-European *swen- (“to sound”).^[8][3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Producing a sound; sonorous: 1628, in J. Jackson's Ecclesiastes, a use the OED, revised in 2017, marks as obsolete.^[2] Etymonline notes an earlier use for "quality of sounding" in the 1590s.^[8] The first phonetic use comes from 1808, in C. Wilkins's grammar of Sanskrit, according to the revised OED,^[2] while Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date it to 1846.^[5][8][4]

Semantic evolution

The general sense of making a sound died out by the end of the 18th century, in the OED's record,^[2] and the noun "that which produces a sound" is recorded only in 1654.^[2] The word then became a term of phonetics: first for a voiced sound or letter, opposed to surd,^[2][4] and since 1862, in W. D. Whitney, also for a sound that can form a syllable.^[2] The noun followed for syllabic sounds in 1888,^[2] and the Shorter Oxford records a mid-20th-century use for a consonant, such as [l, m, n, r], that can be either syllabic or not.^[9]

Timeline

• 1628 – adjective, producing a sound (obsolete by 1798).^[2]
• 1654 – noun, that which produces a sound (rare and obsolete).^[2]
• 1808 – of a sound or letter, voiced; a voiced sound or letter.^[2] Barnhart dates the adjective to 1846 and the noun to 1849.^[5]
• 1862 – adjective, syllabic.^[2]
• 1888 – noun, a syllabic sound.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (phonetics) Of a speech sound, voiced; opposed to surd.^[4][2]
2. (phonetics) Of a consonant, syllabic; able to form a syllable or the nucleus of one.^[4][10][2]
3. Producing or having a sound; the OED marks this use as obsolete after 1798, though Collins still lists it.^[10][2]

Noun

1. (phonetics) A voiced sound.^[4][2]
2. (phonetics) A syllabic consonant, or a continuant or nasal that can be syllabic or not, such as [l] or [n].^{[4][10][9][2]}

Word family

• nonsonant
• sonantal
• sonantic

Related words

• sound
• consonant
• assonant
• dissonant
• resonant
• sonata
• sonnet
• unison

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins