sonorous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin sonōrus (“full of sound, loud, high-sounding”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} with the suffix -ous,^[2][4][7] from sonor (“sound, noise”),^[2][3][4] from sonō (“to sound”),^[2][3][4] from Proto-Indo-European *swen- (“to sound”).^[3][5] The OED, revised in 2017, adds that the first record, in Cotgrave's dictionary of 1611, is borrowed from Middle French sonoreux, recorded before 1524 and made from the same Latin adjective.^[2] Barnhart says that the word replaced the earlier sonouse, which is from Medieval Latin sonōsus, and sonoure, which is directly from the Latin.^[4][3][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged relates the Latin adjective to sonus (“sound”), the source of sound.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Giving out a loud or resonant sound, especially a deep or ringing one: 1611, in Cotgrave's French–English dictionary.^[2][4][9] Earlier Middle English had sonoure of a person with a pleasant voice or a pleasant-sounding bell, about 1400,^[8][3] and sonouse, resonant, about 1429.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the sounding object the word passed to the sound itself, especially a person's voice, as loud, deep and full, from 1632.^[2] Barnhart dated the meaning "having a full, rich sound" to Dryden's translations of Juvenal (1693),^[4] but the revised OED has it earlier, and it applies the word to spoken and written style from 1650, in H. More.^[2] This use of style could turn critical, as in Collins's "high-flown, grandiloquent" and Merriam-Webster Unabridged's excessively heavy or self-assured effect.^[10][9] Johnson (1755) kept the two main senses apart: "loud sounding; giving loud or shrill sound", quoting Milton's "sonorous metal", and "high sounding; magnificent of sound", quoting Addison on Italian opera.^[11] Technical senses followed in the sciences: conveying sound, in physics, from 1657, and a low-pitched resonant sound heard in the chest, in medicine, from 1809.^[2] From 1701 a place could be sonorous too, full of noise.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – sonoure, having a pleasant voice.^[8][3]
• c. 1429 – sonouse, resonant.^[8]
• 1611 – making a loud or resonant sound.^[2][4][9]
• 1632 – of a sound or voice, loud, deep and full.^[2]
• 1650 – of style, imposing, full and rich.^[2]
• 1657 – that conveys or conducts sound.^[2]
• 1673 – of a person, having a full and rich style or voice.^[2]
• 1701 – of a place, full of sound, resounding.^[2]
• 1809 – in medicine, of a low-pitched resonant chest sound.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Producing a sound, especially a deep or ringing one, as when struck: a sonorous bronze gong.^[10][9][2]
2. Of a voice or sound, deep, full and resonant: The old judge read the verdict in sonorous tones.^[10][9][2]
3. Of language or style, imposing or impressive; high-flown or grandiloquent.^[10][9][2]
4. Of a place, full of sound; resounding.^[2][9]
5. (physics) Conveying or conducting sound.^[2]
6. (medicine) Of a sound heard in the chest by auscultation, low-pitched and resonant.^[2]

Word family

• sonorously
• sonorousness
• unsonorous

Related words

• sonorant
• sonority
• sound
• sonant

References

1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.