Forms: α. 1, 3–4 sund (4–5 sonde), 5–6 sownd(e, sounde, 4– sound. β. 5, 7 sown, 6–7 sowne, 8 Sc. soun. [Partly OE. sund swimming, water, sea, and partly a. ON. sund swimming, strait (Norw. sund swimming, swim-bladder, strait, ferry; Sw. and Da. sund strait; G. sund is a late adoption). The stem sunda- represents an early sumda-, pre-Teutonic swm-tó-, f. the stem of SWIM v.]
I. † 1. The action or power of swimming. Obs.
Beowulf, 507. Eart þu se Beowulf, se þe wið Brecan wunne, on sidne sæ ymb sund flite.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., II. iv. 72. Þa ʓebeotode an his ðeʓna þæt he mid sunde þa ea oferfaran wolde.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom. (Th.), I. 16. Of wætere he ʓesceop fixas and fuʓelas, and sealde ðam fixum sund, and ðam fuʓelum fliht.
c. 1205. Lay., 21326. He … bi-haldeð hu ligeð i þan stræme stelene fisces, mid sweorde bi-georede, heore sund is awemmed.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 621. Fiss on sund, and fouxl on flight. Ibid., 1841. Þat was na creatur in liue … Bot it war fisse þat flett on sund.
2. The swimming bladder of certain fish, esp. of cod or sturgeon.
So Norw. sund, also sundmage (Icel. sundmagi), f. mage stomach (maw).
α. 1323–4. Ely Sacr. Rolls, II. 43. In sound. empt. pro pictore, 4d. Ibid. (1341–2), 117. In … soundes pisc., 43/4d.
14[?]. in Rel. Ant., I. 163. For to make boke-glewe.—Take the sowndys of stok-fysch.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 466. Sounde, of a fysche…, ventigina.
1530. Palsgr., 273/1. Sounde of a fysshe, cannon.
1661. Pepys, Diary, 16 Oct. This day dined … upon a fin of ling and some sounds.
1672. Josselyn, New Eng. Rarities, 32. The Sturgeon, of whose Sounds are made Isinglass.
1761. Franklin, in J. Adams’s Wks. (1850), II. 82, note. This fish-glue is nothing more than the sounds of cod or other fish, extended and dried in the sun.
1769. Mrs. Raffald, Eng. Housekpr. (1778), 23. To dress Cod Sounds. Steep your sounds as you do the salt cod.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 443. All fishes, possessing a sound or air-bladder, are equally capable of supplying this organ with air.
1859. Habits of Gd. Society, v. 223. Cod is cut crossways, and a small piece of the sound sent with each helping.
1882. Knowledge, No. 10. 195. In a herring … the ‘sound’ may be seen as a silvery, glistening bag, which is removable along with the other organs of the fish when it is ‘gutted.’
β. c. 1475. Promp. Parv., 466 (MS. K.), Sown.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv., xviii. 148. Cods … have also a thick and gluish substance at the end of their stomach called a sowne.
1701. Househ.-bk. of Lady G. Baillie (S.H.S.), Introd. p. xxxix. Two barrils of souns and gullits.
† 3. Hunting. A spring or pool of water. Obs.
1581. Marbeck, Bk. of Notes, 474. Our Hunters (I trowe) tearme it not to call it the water Springs, but they call it the Sound. The Stagge saie they, got him to the Sound.
II. 4. A relatively narrow channel or stretch of water, esp. one between the mainland and an island, or connecting two large bodies of water; a strait. Also, an inlet of the sea.
The first quot. may represent the OE. sund ‘sea, water,’ but the later use appears to be clearly of Scand. origin. Some writers, associating the word with SOUND v.2, have attempted to limit the application to channels capable of being easily sounded.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 628 (Harl. MS.). Y fond a ship rowen in þe sound byflowen [v.r. Mid watere al by flowe].
1513. Douglas, Æneid, I. iv. 15. In ane braid sownd sovir frome al wyndis blawis, Flowis the schoir deip.
c. 1572. Gascoigne, Fruites Warre, cvii. The haste so hoate that (eare they sinke the sowne) They came on ground.
1595. Drake’s Voy. (Hakl. Soc.), 9. We passed a sounde, though, by our mariners, never passed by fleet afore.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., i. 164. Her haven angled so about her harb’rous sound, That in her quiet Bay a hundred ships may ride.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 399. Forth with the Sounds and Seas, each Creek & Bay With Frie innumerable swarme.
1725. Pope, Odyss., I. 93. The bright increase Or Phorcys, dreaded in the sounds and seas.
1774. Pennant, Tour Scotl. in 1772, 215. Several little isles, divided by narrow and dangerous sounds.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., I. 88. Steering then along shore, they opened another large sound.
1847. H. Miller, First Impr. Eng., xi. (1857), 176. This region of central England was once a broad ocean sound…: there rose land on both sides of it.
1894. J. T. Fowler, Adamnan, Introd. 66. [Iona] is separated from the Ross of Mull by a sound or strait about a mile across.
transf. 1721. Swift, South Sea, Wks. 1755, III. II. 136. There is a gulph where thousands fell; A narrow sound, though deep as hell.
b. In the names of particular straits or inlets.
14[?]. Sailing Directions (Hakl. Soc., 1889), 18. The sow[n]de of blaskay. Ibid., 19. The sounde of Ranseynes.
c. 1595. Capt. Wyatt, Dudley’s Voy. (Hakl. Soc.), 5. Wee … safelie arived in the Sownde of Plimworth on the xixth day.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXII. xi. 438. Certaine ships … were … taken about the sound or haven of Cossa.
1670. J. Smith, Eng. Improv. Reviv’d, VI. 253. The best and chiefest Sound in Shotland is Brace-sound, or Broad-sound.
1814. Scott, Lord of Isles, I. vii. To where a turret’s airy head … O’erlook’d, dark Mull! thy mighty Sound.
1865. Reader, 4 Feb., 125/3. Near the entrance of Smith’s Sound.
1907. Trans. Devon. Assoc., XXXIX. 52. The Hamoaze and Plymouth Sound.
c. The Sound, the strait between Denmark and Sweden that connects the Cattegat with the Baltic Sea. Also attrib.
1633. Sir J. Burroughs, Sov. Brit. Seas (1651), 83. The King of Denmarke at his Wardhouse in the Sound.
a. 1646. J. Gregory, Posthuma, Maps & Charts (1650), 328. It is called by them [the Danish] Sond, or Sund: by us the Sound.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 289. The strait called the Sound, which connects the North Sea with the Baltic. Ibid., Sound-dues. A toll or tribute levied by the King of Denmark on all merchant vessels passing the strait called the Sound.
1852. trans. Ida Pfeiffer’s Journ. Iceland, 40. The blue glistening Sound stretching out of sight between the coasts of Denmark and Sweden.
