Etymograph

English

shockfront

From shock + front.

A compound of shock + front

Proto-Germanic *skukkaną ‘to move, shake, tremble’

Old Dutch *skokkan ‘to shake up and down’

Middle Dutch schokken ‘to push, jolt, shake’

English shock

Latin frōns ‘forehead’

Old French front ‘forehead’

Middle English front

English front

Today it means

noun the leading edge of a shock wave; the rapidly expanding interface between a pressure disturbance created, for example, by an explosion and the surrounding environment.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “shockfront”. 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 / shockfront