English
sone
Sone comes from Latin sonus ‘sound’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂-.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swenh₂-1‘to sound’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swónh₂os1reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*swonos1reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonus2‘sound’
- Englishearliest quotation 1651sone2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin sonus
- 2 Wiktionary, English sone
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1651, William Bradford, The names of those which came over first: “Francis Eaton, and Sarah his wife, and Samuel their…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swenh₂-Wiktionary, Latin sonus‘to sound’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*swónh₂osWiktionary, Latin sonusreconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*swonosWiktionary, Latin sonusreconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonusWiktionary, English sone‘sound’
- Englishearliest quotation 1651soneWiktionary, English sone. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1651, William Bradford, The names of those which came over first: “Francis Eaton, and Sarah his wife, and Samuel their…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- ‘to sound’
re, personal, personnel, swan, resonance, resonate, resonant, parson, sonorous, consonance, 11 more
through Proto-Italic *swonos
through Latin sonus ‘sound’
Today it means
noun a subjective unit of loudness for an average listener equal to the loudness of a 1000-hertz sound that has an intensity 40 decibels above the listener's own threshold of hearing
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “sone”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin sonus. 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- / sone