Etymograph

English

horrisonant

Horrisonant comes from Latin horrisonus ‘horridly-sounding, horrisonant’, from horreō ‘to stand erect, stand on end’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- ‘to sound, resound’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swenh₂-1‘to sound, resound’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swonh₂éyeti1reconstructediterative present of *swenh₂-
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*swonaō1‘to sound, resound’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonō2‘to sound’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhorreō2‘to stand erect, stand on end’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhorrisonus3‘horridly-sounding, horrisonant’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1834horrisonant3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin sono
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin horrisonus
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English horrisonant
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1834, Robert Southey: “And if it had been necessary to exact implicit…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swenh₂-Wiktionary, Latin sono‘to sound, resound’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swonh₂éyetiWiktionary, Latin sonoreconstructediterative present of *swenh₂-
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*swonaōWiktionary, Latin sono‘to sound, resound’reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonōWiktionary, Latin horrisonus‘to sound’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhorreōWiktionary, Latin horrisonus‘to stand erect, stand on end’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEhorrisonusWiktionary, English horrisonant‘horridly-sounding, horrisonant’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1834horrisonantWiktionary, English horrisonant. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1834, Robert Southey: “And if it had been necessary to exact implicit…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- ‘to sound, resound’

sound, swan, unison, sonnet, sone, 9 more

through Proto-Italic *swonaō ‘to sound, resound’

impersonal, 5 more

through Latin sonō ‘to sound’

re, personal, personnel, resonance, resonate, parson, resonant, resound, sonorous, consonance, 6 more

through Latin horreō ‘to stand erect, stand on end’

horror, horrendous, abhorrent, abhor, 6 more

Today it means

adj Having an unpleasant sound.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “horrisonant”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin sono, Latin horrisonus. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- / horrisonant

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