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Origin and history of thud

thud(v.)

a word more or less imitative and perhaps coined several times in English. Old English had þyddan "to strike, stab, thrust, press." Middle English thudden "push forcefully," also "throw down" (a corpse), c. 1200, is held to be descended from it. The noun is attested from 1510s as "blast of wind;" 1530s as "a loud sound."

The word in the modern senses of "hit with a dull sound; emit a low, blunt sound as by a blow upon a comparatively yielding body," also as the representation of such a sound, is from 1790s. Related: Thudded; thudding.

Entries linking to thud

thump(v.)

1530s, "to strike hard, beat heavily as with the fist or a blunt instrument," probably imitative of the sound made by hitting with a heavy object (compare thud, bump (v.), also East Frisian dump "a knock," Swedish dialectal dumpa "to make a noise"). Related: Thumped; thumping. Intransitive sense of "to beat, give a thump" is from 1560s. As "walk with heavy steps," c. 1600.

thunk(n.)

sound of impact, attested by 1952, echoic. Compare thud, plunk. As a verb, "fall or land with a thunk," by 1963.

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    scrunch
    1825, "to bite, crush with or as with the teeth," intensive form of crunch (v.); ultimately imitative (see scr-). The colloquial meaning "to squeeze, crush" is by 1835 (implied in scrunched). The intransitive sense of "contract oneself into a more compact shape" is by 1884. Relat
    sound
    "noise, what is heard, sensation produced through the ear," late 13c., soun, from Old French son "sound, musical note, voice," from Latin sonus "sound, a noise," from PIE *swon-o-, from root *swen- "to sound." The unetymological -d was established c. 1350-1550 (see D). Sound-boar
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    Old English gan "to advance, walk; depart, go away; happen, take place; conquer; observe, practice, exercise," from West Germanic *gaian (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian gan, Middle Dutch gaen, Dutch gaan, Old High German gan, German gehen), from PIE root *ghē- "to release,
    strike
    Middle English striken, from Old English strican (past tense strac, past participle stricen) "pass lightly over, stroke, smooth, rub" (senses now obsolete), also "go, move, proceed, make one's way," from Proto-Germanic *strikanan (source also of Old Norse strykva "to stroke," Old
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    late Old English hyttan, hittan "come upon, meet with, fall in with, 'hit' upon," from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse hitta "to light upon, meet with," also "to hit, strike;" Swedish hitta "to find," Danish and Norwegian hitte "to hit, find," from Proto-Germanic *hitjan,
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    1814, "crush with the teeth," a variant of craunch (1630s), which probably is of imitative origin. Meaning "act or proceed with a sound of crunching" is by 1849. Related: Crunched; crunching. The noun is 1836, "an act of crunching," from the verb; the sense of "critical moment" w
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    [place of instruction] Middle English scole, from Old English scol, "institution for instruction," from Latin schola "meeting place for teachers and students, place of instruction;" also "learned conversation, debate; lecture; disciples of a teacher, body of followers, sect," als
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    late 14c., "wise, discerning, judicious," from Old French prudent "with knowledge, deliberate" (c. 1300) and directly from Latin prudentem (nominative prudens) "knowing, skilled, sagacious, circumspect;" rarely in literal sense "foreseeing;" contraction of providens, present part
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    Middle English shrine "repository in which a holy object or the relics of a saint are kept," from late Old English scrin "ark (of the covenant); chest, coffer; case for relics," from Latin scrinium "case or box for keeping papers," a word of unknown origin. A widespread Latin bor

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