stun

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English stonen, also stunen,^[2][3][4][5] probably borrowed from Old French estoner (“to stun, daze”) with the loss of its first syllable (modern étonner),^[6][7][5][8] through Anglo-Norman estuner.^[9][10] Etymonline and the MED take it as a shortening of the Middle English verb astonen, from the same French verb,^[2][11] so that it is a doublet of astonish and astound.^[6][9] The French verb comes from Vulgar Latin *extonō (“to stupefy”),^[12][9][3] formed from the intensive prefix ex- and tonō (“to thunder”) on the model of attonō (“to stupefy”);^[9][10][3] tonō is related to English thunder.^[9] The verb has often been derived from Old English stunian (“to crash, resound”),^[6] as Skeat and Johnson did,^[13][14] but the OED rejects this because the sense is quite different and the Old English verb apparently did not survive into Middle English.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To knock unconscious or senseless with a blow, and to daze with strong emotion: both are first found in the Cursor Mundi (before 1325, in a manuscript of before 1400).^[6][5] Etymonline dates stonen, "to daze or render unconscious", to the early 14th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that, like astonish and astound, the word etymologically means "to leave thunderstruck".^[9] Weekley observed that the French verb kept a stronger sense until the 17th century.^[15] In Middle English the word covered both bewilderment and amazement, and could mean to be held motionless by shock or frightened.^[11] From 1621 it was used of noise that dazes or deafens.^[6][7] From 1676 masons used it of bruising stone so that its surface splinters, with the noun stun for such a flaw from 1850.^[6][7] The noun, the act or effect of stunning, is recorded from 1727, in James Thomson.^[6][5][16] The adjective stunning meant "dazing, astounding" in Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) and "first-rate, splendid" by 1849–50, in Dickens's David Copperfield.^[5] In 19th-century thieves' slang stun meant to cheat someone of a share,^[17] and in Australian and New Zealand slang stunned means drunk.^[7] In dialect it could mean to startle (Orkney) or to stop the growth of grass or animals (Hampshire, Wiltshire).^[18]

Timeline

• before 1325 – to knock senseless; to daze with emotion (Cursor Mundi).^[6][5]
• 1470–1485 – to break with heavy blows, in Malory (obsolete).^[6][19]
• 1621 – to daze or deafen with noise.^[6][19]
• 1667 – stunning, dazing, in Milton.^[5]
• 1676 – to bruise the surface of stone.^[6]
• 1727 – noun, the act or effect of stunning.^[6][5]
• 1839 – thieves' slang, to cheat.^[17]
• 1849–1850 – stunning, splendid, in Dickens.^[5]
• 1850 – noun, a flaw on the surface of stone.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make someone unconscious or unable to move, as by a blow or fall: The fall from the ladder stunned him.^[20][16][7]
2. To shock, astonish or overwhelm: The verdict stunned the whole town.^[20][16][7]
3. To daze or deafen with noise.^[16][7][6]
4. To bruise the surface of stone so that it splinters or flakes; of stone, to flake off in this way.^[7][6]

Noun

1. The effect of something that stuns; the state of being stunned.^[20][16][6]
2. A stroke in snooker.^[16]
3. A flaw on the surface of a stone (rare).^[7][6]

Word family

• stunner
• stun gun

Related words

• astonish
• astound
• stunning
• thunder

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ a b c d e f Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b 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)
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
17. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
19. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
20. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins