thud

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][3] It is perhaps inherited from Middle English thudden (“to strike, thrust, push”),^[4][5][6] inherited from Old English þyddan (“to strike, stab, thrust, press”),^[4][6][3][7] a word of uncertain origin that would normally go back to a Germanic form *þudjan from a stem *þud-;^[2] Wiktionary gives Proto-Germanic *þuddijaną.^[1] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford take the modern word as probably identical with the Old English verb and relate it to þoddettan (“to push, beat”) and þoden (“violent wind”).^[8][9] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the Concise Oxford also derive it, probably, from the Old English verb.^[10][11] The OED, however, treats the obsolete verb, recorded in Old English and until about 1400, separately from the noun and verb that appear about 1513: the forms fit, but there is a gap in both time and sense between them, and the later words may be purely echoic, or the old verb may have changed its meaning under echoic influence.^[2] Etymonline calls the word more or less imitative and perhaps coined several times,^[3] Dictionary.com calls it imitative and compares the Middle and Old English verbs,^[12] and Klein and Partridge also give an imitative origin.^[13][14] Weekley allowed either an imitative word or the Old English verb with a sense shaped by imitation,^[15] and Skeat compared Latin tundō (“to beat”).^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

A blast of wind or a gust, in Scots: 1513, in Gavin Douglas's translation of Virgil's Aeneid, where the verb, to come with a blast or gust, is also first found.^[2][5] The Old English verb meant to strike or thrust, and is recorded in Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care;^[2][6] the Middle English verb, to press with force, is found before 1225.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The modern word began in Scots with the force of the wind: a blast or squall (1513), the verb for the wind coming in gusts,^[2][8] and then a loud sound like a thunderclap or a cannon shot (before 1586 to 1796).^[2][6] In Scots and northern dialect it was next used for a heavy blow or a punch (1787), also figuratively for a severe blow of fortune.^[2][8] The sense now usual, a dull heavy sound without resonance, appears in 1825, in Brockett's glossary of North Country words, and was originally northern dialect.^[2][6] The verb for making such a sound is recorded from 1796 in Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[6][5] while the OED dates it to 1813 and adds the transitive sense of striking something with a thud from 1899.^[2] From 1880 the word was also used as an interjection or adverb, "with a thud".^[2][9] The English Dialect Dictionary records it in Scotland, Ireland and the north of England, and as far south as Kent, for falling heavily, moving quickly and blowing in gusts.^[17] In Australian slang a thud was a bad fall, usually in figurative use (1918), and to thud someone was to hit them (1949).^[18]

Timeline

• 1513 – noun, a blast of wind, a gust (Scots); verb, to come in gusts.^[2][5]
• before 1586 – a loud sound, as of thunder or a cannon (Scots; obsolete after 1796).^[2]
• 1787 – a heavy blow, a thump (Scots and northern dialect).^[2]
• 1796 – to move or strike with a dull heavy sound.^[5][6]
• 1825 – a dull heavy sound without resonance.^[2][6]
• 1880 – interjection or adverb, with a thud.^[2]
• 1899 – transitive, to strike something so that it thuds.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A dull, heavy sound, such as that of a weight falling on soft ground: The sack of flour landed on the floor with a thud.^[19][5][2]
2. A blow or fall that makes such a sound.^[19][5]
3. (Scottish) A gust of wind; a squall.^[5][2]

Verb

1. To make a dull, heavy sound, or to fall, move or strike with one: Rain thudded on the canvas all night.^[19][5][2]
2. To strike something so that it makes such a sound.^[19][2]

Interjection

1. Used to imitate the sound of something heavy falling.^[2][9]

Word family

• thuddingly

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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins