sonido

Forms

sonido m (plural sonidos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish sonido, inherited from Latin sonitus (“noise, din”), a semi-learned word.^[2][3][1] The stress moved from the first syllable of the Latin word to the ⟨i⟩ under the influence of nouns in -ido such as tronido, silbido, chirrido, rugido and ruido.^[2][4][1] Corominas lists it under the verb sonar.^[2]

The popular outcome of the Latin noun is Romanian sunet.^[5] Portuguese soído is a rare word, which Nascentes takes for a contracted form of the Spanish word and others for a borrowing of it.^[6][7] The shorter son is probably from Occitan son as a term of troubadour music.^[3][2]

The Latin noun is formed from sonō (“to sound”) with the suffix -tus.^[8][1] De Vaan derives the verb from Proto-Indo-European *suenH- (“to sound”), with an iterative *suonh₂-éie-.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy): Moab will die en sonido, con alboroz e en voz de cuerno “in tumult, with shouting and the sound of the horn”.^[10][11] Corominas's first example is Berceo's Loores de Nuestra Señora, where oyeron un sonido del cielo descender “they heard a sound come down from heaven”.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X uses the noun for the noise of waters and voices, and the Castigos of Sancho IV for the clink of gold.^[12][10] In 16th-century Mexico it also meant “stir, fuss”: a writer of 1564 let some men be por no hacer más sonido “so as not to make more noise”.^[13] Nebrija gave Latin sonitus and sonus as its equivalents.^[14]

Autoridades defined sound as a particular movement or shock of the air, struck by a body or by the collision of bodies and perceived by the ear.^[15] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 added the sound value of letters, the sense “news, fame” and the phrase estar al sonido de las palabras “to keep to the literal meaning of the words”.^[16] Alemany's dictionary of 1917 has the modern definition, a sensation produced in the ear by the vibration of bodies carried through an elastic medium such as air.^[17] The DLE adds a definition from physics and, in phonetics, the sense “allophone”.^[4] Vox also lists the sound equipment of a broadcast or performance.^[18] In the Canaries sonido (often sonío) is colloquial for a slap or blow on the head.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy).^[10]
• 1220–1250 – Corominas's date, from Berceo's Loores de Nuestra Señora.^[3][2]
• 1280 – Alfonso X's General Estoria, in its fourth part.^[12]
• 1293 – the first hit in a manuscript of the same date, the Castigos of Sancho IV.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin sonitus and sonus.^[14]
• 1545 – first record from the Americas, in Honduras.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as a movement of the air perceived by the ear.^[15]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the value of letters and “news, fame”.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin sonitus.^[20]
• 1917 – Alemany defines it by the vibration of bodies.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. sound: the sensation produced in the ear by the vibration of bodies, carried through an elastic medium such as air: Me despertó el sonido de la lluvia.^[4][1]
2. The literal meaning of words, in estar al sonido de las palabras.^[4]
3. (dated) news, fame (noticia, fama).^[4]
4. (physics) A mechanical vibration carried through an elastic medium.^[4]
5. (phonetics) An allophone, one of the variants of a phoneme (fonema).^[4][21]
6. The equipment that produces, records or reproduces sound: Falló el sonido durante el concierto.^[18]

Word family

• sonidista

Related words

• son
• sonar
• sónico
• sonoro
• resonar
• Latin sonitus
• Romanian sunet

Usage notes

Set phrases include barrera del sonido “sound barrier” and banda de sonido “soundtrack”.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 302
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sonar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. sonido
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. soído
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. soído
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sonido
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sonido
12. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. sonido
13. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. sonido
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 418
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 152
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 813
17. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1532
18. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sonido
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. sonido
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 989
21. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. sonido