thud

English

Etymology

From Middle English thudden (“to strike with a weapon”), from Old English þyddan (“to strike, press, thrust”), from Proto-Germanic *þuddijaną, *þiudijaną (“to strike, thrust”), from Proto-Germanic *þūhaną, *þeuhaną (“to press”), from Proto-Indo-European *tūk- (“to beat”). Cognate with Old English þoddettan (“to strike, push, batter”), Old English þȳdan (“to strike, stab, thrust, press”), Old English þēowan (“to press”), Albanian thundër (“a hoof, talon, a shaft", figuratively, "oppression, torment”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈθʌd/, enPR: thŭd'
• Rhymes: -ʌd

Noun

thud (plural thuds)

1. The sound of a dull impact.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 3, in Moonfleet (fiction), London: Edward Arnold:

     These were but the thoughts of a second, but the voices were nearer, and I heard a dull thud far up the passage, and knew that a man had jumped down from the churchyard into the hole.

   • 2018 May 26, Daniel Taylor, “Liverpool go through after Mohamed Salah stops Manchester City fightback”, in The Guardian‎, London, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 May 2018:

     Ramos had locked Salah’s right arm and turned him, judo-style, as they lost balance going for the same ball. Television replays hardened the suspicion it was a calculated move on Ramos’s part and, when Salah landed with a hell of a thud, the damage was considerable.

2. A hard, dull impact.
   • 1995 January 26, Mary Ann Swissler, “Fremont Man Recovering from Livermore Pass Attack”, in Bay Area Reporter‎, volume XXV, number 4, San Fransico, page 18:

     Sinclair told the B.A.R. [Bay Area Reporter] he felt the thud of the pistol on his left cheek about a 100 feet from his car, […]

3. (BDSM) A slower, dull impact with a wide surface area.
   • 1992, Jay J. Wiseman, SM 101: A Realistic Introduction‎, 2nd edition, San Francisco: Greenery Press, published 1996, →ISBN, page 181:

     Pillowcase whippings offer the look and feel of a flagellatio scene’s atmosphere, mood, and psychology while involving only very mild amounts of pain. (A pillowcase is almost all “thud” and very little “sting” in the sensations it creates.)

   • 2013, Sophie Morgan, No Ordinary Love Story‎, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 294:

     It still wasn’t what I’d call painful but as he swung his arm and the strands of the flogger hit me together it felt like a solid thud rather than a number of different tails stinging me.

Coordinate terms

• (BDSM): sting, thump

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

thud (third-person singular simple present thuds, present participle thudding, simple past and past participle thudded)

1. To make the sound of a dull impact.
   • 1849, George Frederick Ruxton, Life in the Far West (non-fiction), New York: Harper & Brothers, page 183:

     At the same instant two arrows thudded into the carcass of the deer over which he knelt, passing but a few inches from his head.

   • 1874, Mrs George Cupples, “Mrs Glen and the Aberfoyle Orphanage”, in The Poetical Remains of William Glen, Edinburgh: William Paterson, page 47:

     […] while the tears streamed from his eyes, and his tail waved and thudded in perfect time on the sanded floor. But for the said thudding of the tail, I would have stopped, fancying the poor animal's nerves had been set on edge.

Synonyms

• (a dull sound, to make a dull sound): flump, plunk

Coordinate terms

• clang, clash, crash

Translations

Romani

Alternative forms

• tood

Etymology

Inherited from Sauraseni Prakrit 𑀤𑀼𑀤𑁆𑀥 (duddha), from Sanskrit दुग्ध (dugdhá, “milk”), from Proto-Indo-Aryan *dugdʰás, from Proto-Indo-Iranian *dʰugdʰás, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰugʰ-tós, from *dʰewgʰ- (“to be productive”). Compare Hindi दूध (dūdh, “milk”) and Punjabi ਦੁੱਧ (duddha, “milk”).

Noun

thud m (nominative plural thuda)

1. milk

Descendants

• Kalo Finnish Romani: thund

References

Further reading

• Yaron Matras (2002) “Historical and linguistic origins”, in Romani: A Linguistic Introduction‎, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 39
• Marcel Courthiade (2009) “o thud, -es- m. -a, -en-”, in Melinda Rézműves, editor, Morri angluni rromane ćhibǎqi evroputni lavustik = Első rromani nyelvű európai szótáram : cigány, magyar, angol, francia, spanyol, német, ukrán, román, horvát, szlovák, görög [My First European-Romani Dictionary: Romani, Hungarian, English, French, Spanish, German, Ukrainian, Romanian, Croatian, Slovak, Greek] (overall work in Hungarian and English), Budapest: Fővárosi Onkormányzat Cigány Ház--Romano Kher, →ISBN, page 364b
• Yūsuke Sumi (2018) “thud, ~a”, in ニューエクスプレスプラス　ロマ（ジプシー）語 [New Express Plus Romani (Gypsy)] (in Japanese), Tokyo: Hakusuisha, published 2021, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 156

Scots

Pronunciation

• (Early Scots) IPA^(key):
• (Early Middle Scots) IPA^(key):
• (Late Middle Scots) IPA^(key):

Etymology 1

Uncertain. Perhaps Onomatopoeic (compare etymology 2).

Noun

thud (plural thuds or thudis) (Middle Scots)

1. a blast or gust of wind
   1. a whirling motion accompanied by a loud noise, like a gust of wind
   2. a loud report or crack
      • 1420, Androw of Wyntoun, The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland‎:

        A sudane thud [R. thude] maid sic a frusch That all the wyndois at a brusche … Brak vp

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. a blow, thump

Etymology 2

Perhaps Onomatopoeic. Perhaps related to Middle English þudde.

Verb

thud (third-person singular simple present thudis, present participle thuding or thudand, simple past thudit, past participle thudit) (Middle Scots)

1. to come or pass with a gust of turbulence and accompanying dull noise
   • 1590, Burel, J. Pilgr., The Passage of the Pilgremer‎:

     The borial blasts … Not caldly, bot baldlie, They thudit throw the treis

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Conjugation

Further reading

• “thud” in Scots Dictionary

Welsh

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /θɨːd/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /θiːd/

Noun

thud

1. Aspirate mutation of tud.

Mutation