Etymograph

English

sonorous

Sonorous comes from Latin sonōrus ‘sounding, resounding’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂-.

  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 make a noise, to resound’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonor3‘sound’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonōrus3‘sounding, resounding’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1761sonorous3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin sono
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Latin sonor
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English sonorous
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1761, Joseph Addison, The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison: “For this reason the Italian opera seldom sinks into…”.

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 sonor‘to make a noise, to resound’
  5. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonorWiktionary, English sonorous‘sound’
  6. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEsonōrusWiktionary, English sonorous‘sounding, resounding’
  7. Englishearliest quotation 1761sonorousWiktionary, English sonorous. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1761, Joseph Addison, The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison: “For this reason the Italian opera seldom sinks into…”

Linked words

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

sound, swan, unison, sonnet, sone, 10 more

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

impersonal, 6 more

through Latin sonō ‘to make a noise, to resound’

re, personal, personnel, resonance, resonate, resonant, parson, resound, consonance, 7 more

Today it means

adj Capable of giving out a deep, resonant sound.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “sonorous”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for Latin sono, Latin sonor. 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- / sonorous

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