suono

Forms

suono m (plural suoni)^[1] The older and poetic form is sono, also popular and regional, and the old plurals included le suona and le suonora.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sonus (“sound, noise; voice”), derived from sonō (“to sound, resound”).^[6][7][8][1] The same word is French son, Occitan so, Catalan so, Portuguese som and Old Spanish sueno (modern Spanish sonido), and also Romansh sun and Logudorese sonu.^[7][9] DEI notes that it did not survive in Romanian.^[10] It was borrowed into Welsh son.^[9][10]

Latin sonus goes back to Proto-Italic *swonos and Proto-Indo-European *swónh₂os, from the root Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- (“to sound”), which also gave Proto-Germanic *swanaz; de Vaan also considers an older *swenos, or a noun formed from the verb.^[1]

The stressed short ⟨ŏ⟩ became the diphthong ⟨uo⟩ in the open syllable; sono without it is the old and poetic form.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEI dates the word to the 12th century;^[10][6][8] DELI's first record is the Novellino (late 13th century), in the sense of the sensation perceived by the ear.^[10][6][8]

Semantic evolution

Dante used suono for the impression a word or phrase makes, and for fame: the fame of a deed that has gone out to the end of the earth.^[6][8] Boccaccio (1353) has it for the ordered vibrations of a musical instrument, and also for music in general and for a tune that is sung.^[6][8] Old Italian also used it for a song and, in the 14th century, for speech or a word.^[10] Petrarch speaks of the suon de l'amorose note.^[11]

Leopardi still uses it for renown: “Where is now the fame of those ancient peoples?” (Or dov'è il suono / di que' popoli antichi?).^[3] In modern Italian it is the physical phenomenon and the sensation, with technical phrases such as velocità del suono, muro del suono or barriera del suono (the sound barrier), tecnico del suono and ingegnere del suono.^[8][12][5] Al suono di means “to the accompaniment of”, and figuratively a suon di “by dint of”.^[12][8] In linguistics a suono is a phone.^[8][3]

Compounds followed with the progress of acoustics: ultrasuono (1931) and transonico (1961).^[7] As a musical term suono passed into French (1703) and German (1732).^[13]

Timeline

• 12th century – DEI's date for suono.^[10]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino has suono for a sound heard.^[6]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for the impression of words and for fame.^[6]
• 1353 – Boccaccio uses it for the sound of a musical instrument.^[6]
• 1703 – French suono is recorded as a musical term.^[13]
• 1732 – German Suono is recorded.^[13]
• 1931 – Ultrasuono is recorded.^[7]
• 1961 – Transonico is recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (physics) sound: the vibration of a body that travels through air or another elastic medium and is perceived by the ear.^[8][12][5]
2. A sound produced by the voice, an instrument or another source: Dalla strada arrivava il suono di una fisarmonica.^[8][12][3]
3. (linguistics) A phone or speech sound; also a phoneme.^[8][3]
4. The musicality of words or lines, and the impression it gives.^[8][3]
5. The tone or drift of something said: Il suono di quella risposta non mi è piaciuto.^[8][3]
6. (literary) fame, renown.^[8][3]
7. (archaic) Music; a tune or song.^[8]

Word family

• ultrasuono
• infrasuono
• ipersuono
• transonico

Related words

• suonare
• sonetto
• Latin sonus

Usage notes

Suono is also the first person singular present of suonare (io suono).^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3677
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org