sunken

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from English of sink.^[2][3][4][5] The verb is Middle English sinken, with the past participle sunken or isunken,^[6] from Old English sincan (“to sink, become submerged”), past participle suncen,^[7][5][6] from Proto-Germanic *sinkwaną,^[8] the source also of Dutch zinken, German sinken, Old Norse søkkva and Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌲𐌵𐌰𐌽 (sigqan).^[5][2][8] The OED calls the further etymology uncertain and compares an Armenian verb meaning "he or she fell",^[2][9] while Etymonline traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *sengw- (“to sink”).^[5] The shorter participle sunk is also used as an adjective.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fallen to the bottom of the sea or another body of water: 1489, in a manuscript of Barbour's Bruce, a poem composed before 1380.^[2] Etymonline dates the adjective to the late 14th century,^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 14th century,^[3] and Dictionary.com to 1325–75.^[10]

Semantic evolution

By the early 16th century, in Henryson's Testament of Cresseid, eyes or cheeks were sunken when they looked hollow from tiredness, illness or age;^[2] Etymonline dates this use to about 1600.^[5] From 1578 rocks and land lying below the surface of the water were sunken,^[2] as in Conrad's "the treachery of sunken rocks".^[11] The figurative sense of low spirits followed in 1642,^[2] and in the late 17th and 18th centuries the word was used of ground that had subsided, of work cut below a surface in various crafts (1683) and of buildings set below the level of the ground or floor (1791), the source of the sunken garden and sunken bath.^[2] The OED notes that sunk tends to be kept for senses that imply deliberate human action, leaving the natural sinking to sunken.^[12][5]

Timeline

• 1489 – sunk to the bottom of water, submerged.^[2]
• before 1505 – of eyes or cheeks, hollow, deep-set.^[2]
• 1578 – of rocks or land, lying below the water.^[2]
• 1642 – figurative, weakened; of spirits, low.^[2]
• 1663 – fallen in below the normal level, subsided.^[2]
• 1683 – of craftwork, cut below the surrounding surface.^[2]
• 1791 – built below the level of the surrounding ground or floor.^[2]
• 1798 – of the sun, set; of the day, over.^[2]
• 1817 – of a gun emplacement or fortification, below ground level.^[2]
• 1823 – hanging limply, drooping.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Lying under water, especially at the bottom of the sea or a lake; submerged: Divers mapped the sunken wreck.^[3][13][2]
2. Of the eyes or cheeks, hollow or deeply set, as from illness, hunger or age.^[3][13][2]
3. Set lower than the surrounding ground or floor: a sunken courtyard.^[13][2]
4. Fallen in; subsided below the usual level.^[3][2]
5. Of the spirits, depressed or low.^[13][2]

Word family

• unsunken

Related words

• sink
• sunk

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 s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ 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)
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins