sudden

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsʌd.ən/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sodein, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sodein, or it is borrowed from Old French sodain (“immediate, sudden”),^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *subitānus, a variant of subitāneus (“sudden”),^[2][3] from subitus (“sudden”), the past participle of subīre (“to come up stealthily”), from sub- (“up to”) and īre (“to go”).^[2][3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Happening unexpectedly: the late 13th century in Etymonline, about 1300 in Barnhart.^[2][3] The OED's first quotation is from 1340.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Unpremeditated or rash, of acts and people, is also early, and the sense “speedy, immediate” is obsolete.^[5] The spelling sudden was not finally established until after 1700; suddain lasted into the early 18th century.^[2] The noun, a sudden need, is from the 1550s and survives only in all of a sudden, first found in 1681;^[2][3] earlier forms were upon the soden (1558) and of a sudayn (1596, in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew).^[3] Sudden death in sport, a tie-breaker, is from 1927.^[2]

Timeline

• late 13th century – unexpected.^[2]
• 1558 – upon the soden.^[3]
• 1681 – all of a sudden.^[3]
• 1927 – sudden death in sport.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Happening quickly and without warning; unexpected.
2. Done in haste; abrupt.

Noun

1. (in all of a sudden) Suddenly.

Word family

• suddenly
• suddenness
• sudden death
• sudden infant death syndrome

Related words

• subito

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 i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press