resonans

Forms

resonans (genitive resonantis); third-declension adjective of one termination^[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the present participle from Latin resonō (“to resound, echo”).^[1][2] resonō is made of re- (“back, again”) and sonō (“to sound”);^[3] de Vaan records the verb from Plautus on, with an older form ⟨resonere⟩ in Ennius, Pacuvius and Accius.^[4] sonō goes back to Proto-Italic *swon-aje/o- (“to sound, resound”) and Proto-Indo-European *suonh₂-(e)ie/o- (“to resound”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Conte cites it from Cicero's letters to his brother Quintus and Vitruvius, in the sense “that sends a sound back”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The OLD gives it a single sense, of something that sends back a sound or echoes.^[1] It lives on in Italian risonante, which Conte derives from it,^[2] and English took it over in the 1590s as resonant “re-echoing”, later also of bodies that prolong or strengthen sounds.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it in a letter to his brother Quintus.^[2][6]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it.^[2][6]
• 1590s – English borrows it as resonant.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. That sends back a sound, echoing, resonant.^[1][2]

Related words

• resonō
• sonus

References

1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de