tumult

Etymology

Barnhart, Etymonline, Klein and Wiktionary take it as borrowed from Old French tumulte,^[2][3][4][5] recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1121–25;^[6] the OED and the American Heritage Dictionary take it directly as borrowed from Latin tumultus (“commotion, uproar, disturbance”),^[7][8] and the Shorter Oxford, Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English leave both open.^[9][10][11] The Latin noun is related to tumeō (“to swell”),^[2][4][12] and Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *teue- (“to swell”).^[3] Merriam-Webster and the Shorter Oxford also compare a Sanskrit word for noisy.^[13][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Noise, uproar: about 1380, as tumolte, in Chaucer's translation of Boethius, according to Barnhart,^[2] and Chaucer's works have the form once.^[14] Etymonline likewise says late 14th century.^[3] The OED's first record is Lydgate's translation of the history of Troy (1412–20), for the uproar of a disorderly crowd,^[7] and Merriam-Webster also has the 15th century.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The word first described the noise and disorder of a crowd, so it easily came to mean a particular riot or rising, with a plural, from 1560.^[7] From 1580, in Sir P. Sidney's psalm translations, it was also used of commotion in general;^[7] the use for the mind and feelings, a confused and violent emotion, dates from 1663.^[7] Johnson (1755) gave the commotion of a multitude, a multitude in wild commotion and a stir of any kind, quoting Pope, Shakespeare and Milton.^[15] A use for the disorderly crowd itself survives only from 1629 to 1649.^[7] A verb, to make a tumult or to riot, is recorded from 1570,^[7] and Milton has it;^[13] from 1819 it could also be transitive, to agitate violently.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – tumolte, noise, uproar, in Chaucer.^[2]
• 1412–20 – uproar from a disorderly crowd, in Lydgate.^[7]
• 1560 – an instance of this; a riot, an insurrection.^[7]
• 1570 – verb, to make a tumult, to riot.^[7]
• 1580 – commotion, agitation in general.^[7]
• 1629 – a disorderly crowd (last recorded 1649).^[7]
• 1663 – agitation of the mind or feelings.^[7]
• 1819 – verb, transitive, to agitate violently.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A loud, confused noise, as of a crowd; uproar: The tumult in the square carried across the river.^[16][13][7]
2. A noisy popular uprising; a riot.^[13][7][9]
3. Violent agitation or disturbance; turmoil.^[16][7]
4. Great mental or emotional agitation.^[16][7]
5. (obsolete, 1629–1649) A disorderly crowd; a mob.^[7][9][15]

Verb

1. To make a tumult; to riot.^[13][7]

Related words

• tumultuous
• tumid
• tumor
• tumulus
• thumb

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
6. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
15. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins