Etymologically
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song

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: UK /sɒŋ/, US /sɑːŋ/, /sɔːŋ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English song (also sang), inherited from Old English sang (“voice, vocal music, song, poem”),[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *sangwaz,[3][5] formed from the root of the Germanic verb that gave sing.[3][5][6] Its cognates include Old Saxon sang, Old High German sang, German Gesang, Dutch zang and Old Norse sǫngr,[3][2][5] and Gothic has saggws.[2][5] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *songʷʰ-o- (“singing, song”), from *sengʷʰ- (“to sing, make an incantation”).[2][7] Oxford's Word Origins notes that sing and song come from the same ancient root.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act or art of singing, vocal music: Old English sang, about 888;[9] Barnhart's first example is from about 725, in Beowulf.[3] A composition for singing is recorded from about 897.[9]

Semantic evolution

The musical call of certain birds is a song from late Old English, about 1000.[9][2] In literature the word is often used loosely for a poem meant to stir the emotions, of the kind traditionally sung to the lyre.[2] The Old Testament Song of Solomon is named from 1382.[9] For a song, “for very little”, is from the late 16th century,[8] found in Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well;[2] Word Origins suggests it may come from the sale of ballad sheets at fairs.[8] A song became a fuss or outcry in 1843,[9] and song and dance, a contrived story or fuss, is American English from 1895.[3] Songbird is from 1774, in Goldsmith's Natural History.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – Old English sang (Beowulf).[3]
  • c. 888 – the art of singing.[9]
  • c. 897 – a composition for singing.[9]
  • c. 1000 – the song of birds.[9][2]
  • 1382 – the Song of Solomon.[9]
  • late 16th century – for a song.[8]
  • 1774 – songbird.[3]
  • 1843 – a fuss, an outcry.[9]
  • 1895 – song and dance.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A short composition written or adapted for singing.
  2. The act or art of singing.
  3. The characteristic sounds of a bird or insect.
  4. Poetry or verse; a lyric poem or ballad.
  5. (for a song) A very small sum.

Word family

  • songlike
  • part-song
  • birdsong
  • singsong
  • songwriter
  • evensong
  • plainsong
  • songbird
  • sing
  • singer
  • songster
  • songbook

Usage notes

A separate word Song names a Chinese dynasty of the 10th to 13th centuries, from Chinese sòng, recorded in English from the late 17th century.[4][10]

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 h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  8. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)