sudden English · revision 5467
16 Oct 2026, 02:43 by bogdan “en10k b0205: hire … sudden” current version
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+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 1300|origins=la subīre}}
+
+ ==Pronunciation==
+ * IPA: /ˈsʌd.ən/^(Roach et al. 2011)
+
+ ==Etymology==
+ It is [[inh|enm|sodein]], [[bor|xno|sodein]], or it is [[bor|fro|sodain|t=immediate, sudden]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986) from [[la-vul|*subitānus]], a variant of [[m|la|subitāneus|t=sudden]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) from [[m|la|subitus|t=sudden]], the past participle of [[m|la|subīre|t=to come up stealthily]], from [[m|la|sub-|t=up to]] and [[m|la|īre|t=to go]].^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)
+
+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==
+ Happening unexpectedly: the late 13th century in Etymonline, about 1300 in Barnhart.^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) The OED's first quotation is from 1340.^(OED 1989)
+
+ ==Semantic evolution==
+ Unpremeditated or rash, of acts and people, is also early, and the sense “speedy, immediate” is obsolete.^(OED 1989) The spelling sudden was not finally established until after 1700; suddain lasted into the early 18th century.^(Etymonline) The noun, a sudden need, is from the 1550s and survives only in ''all of a sudden'', first found in 1681;^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) earlier forms were ''upon the soden'' (1558) and ''of a sudayn'' (1596, in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew).^(Barnhart 1988) ''Sudden death'' in sport, a tie-breaker, is from 1927.^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Timeline==
+ * late 13th century – unexpected.^(Etymonline)
+ * 1558 – ''upon the soden''.^(Barnhart 1988)
+ * 1681 – ''all of a sudden''.^(Barnhart 1988)
+ * 1927 – ''sudden death'' in sport.^(Etymonline)
+
+ ==Modern meaning==
+ ===Adjective===
+ # Happening quickly and without warning; [[unexpected]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)
+ # Done in haste; [[abrupt]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)
+
+ ===Noun===
+ # ''(in all of a sudden)'' Suddenly.^(Collins 2023)^(SOED 2002)
+
+ ==Word family==
+ * [[suddenly]]
+ * [[suddenness]]
+ * [[sudden death]]
+ * [[sudden infant death syndrome]]
+
+ ==Related words==
+ * [[subito]]
+
+ ==References==
+ {{reflist}}