thud

See also: 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^[2], 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^[3], 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^[4], 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^[5], 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

• thud and blunder

 

Translations

the sound of a dull impact

• Bulgarian: приглушен звук от падане (priglušen zvuk ot padane)
• Czech: žuch (cs), žuchnutí n, zadunění n, bouchnutí (cs) n
• Danish: bump
• Finnish: tömähdys (fi), jysähdys (fi), mätkähdys (fi), jymähdys (fi)
• French: martèlement (fr) m
• German: Bollern n; dumpfer Knall m
• Greek:

  Ancient: δοῦπος m (doûpos)

• Icelandic: dynkur (is) m
• Irish: tuairt f, trost f
• Italian: tonfo (it) m
• Macedonian: тап звук m (tap zvuk), тре́сок m (trésok)
• Malagasy: ngodongodona
• Malay:

  Jawi: دبق / لبق

  Rumi: debak / lebak (ms)

• Maori: ngahoa, takuru
• Occitan: bomb m, bombe m
• Polish: łup (pl), łubudu, tąpnięcie (pl), łomot (pl)
• Portuguese: baque m
• Romanian: bufnitură (ro) f
• Russian: глухо́й звук m (gluxój zvuk)
• Serbo-Croatian: mukao zvuk m
• Spanish: golpe sordo m
• Swedish: duns (sv) c
• Turkish: güm (tr), pat (tr)
• Vietnamese: ịch (vi)

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

to make the sound of a dull impact

• Czech: žuchnout (cs) pf, bouchnout pf, zadunět pf
• Finnish: tömähtää, jysähtää, mätkähtää (fi), jymähtää
• French: marteler (fr)
• German: bollern (de), stampfen (de), dumpf knallen
• Greek:

  Ancient: δουπέω (doupéō)

• Maori: hapuru, ngahoa
• Occitan: bombar (oc)
• Polish: łomotać (pl), walić (pl), stąpać (pl)
• Spanish: darse un batacazo
• Turkish: gümlemek (tr), güm etmek

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

Further reading

• Yaron Matras (2002) “Historical and linguistic origins”, in Romani: A Linguistic Introduction‎^[6], 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): [ˈθuːd]
• (Early Middle Scots) IPA^(key): [ˈθuːd]
• (Late Middle Scots) IPA^(key): [ˈθu(ː)d]

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^[7]:

        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^[8]:

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

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Conjugation

Conjugation of thud

infinitive	(to) thud
indicative	present	preterite
1st person singular	thud	thudit, thuded
2nd person singular	thud	thudit, thuded
3rd person singular	thudis	thudit, thuded
plural	thud	thudit, thuded
imperative	present	—
singular	thud (ȝow)!
plural	thud (þow)!
participle	present	past
	thudyng¹ (-ing), thudand(e)²	¹(i-, y-)thudit, ¹(i-, y-)thuded
Note: The conjugation of verbs in Middle Scots is quite irregular and varies from region to region; this is just a proposal based on the formal verbs found in texts. ¹: Southern Middle Scots ²: Northern Middle Scots

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

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
tud	dud	nhud	thud
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.