thud

See also: Thud

English

Etymology

From Middle English thudden (“to strike with a weapon”), from Old English þyddan (“to strike, press, thrust”), from Proto-Germanic *þuddijaną, *þiudijaną (“to strike, thrust”), from Proto-Germanic *þūhaną, *þeuhaną (“to press”), from Proto-Indo-European *tūk- (“to beat”). Cognate with Old English þoddettan (“to strike, push, batter”), Old English þȳdan (“to strike, stab, thrust, press”), Old English þēowan (“to press”), Albanian thundër (“a hoof, talon, a shaft", figuratively, "oppression, torment”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈθʌd/, enPR: thŭd'
• Rhymes: -ʌd

Noun

thud (plural thuds)

1. The sound of a dull impact.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 3, in Moonfleet (fiction), London: Edward Arnold:

     These were but the thoughts of a second, but the voices were nearer, and I heard a dull thud far up the passage, and knew that a man had jumped down from the churchyard into the hole.

   • 2018 May 26, Daniel Taylor, “Liverpool go through after Mohamed Salah stops Manchester City fightback”, in The Guardian‎, London, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 May 2018:

     Ramos had locked Salah’s right arm and turned him, judo-style, as they lost balance going for the same ball. Television replays hardened the suspicion it was a calculated move on Ramos’s part and, when Salah landed with a hell of a thud, the damage was considerable.

2. A hard, dull impact.
   • 1995 January 26, Mary Ann Swissler, “Fremont Man Recovering from Livermore Pass Attack”, in Bay Area Reporter‎, volume XXV, number 4, San Fransico, page 18:

     Sinclair told the B.A.R. [Bay Area Reporter] he felt the thud of the pistol on his left cheek about a 100 feet from his car, […]

3. (BDSM) A slower, dull impact with a wide surface area.
   • 1992, Jay J. Wiseman, SM 101: A Realistic Introduction‎, 2nd edition, San Francisco: Greenery Press, published 1996, →ISBN, page 181:

     Pillowcase whippings offer the look and feel of a flagellatio scene’s atmosphere, mood, and psychology while involving only very mild amounts of pain. (A pillowcase is almost all “thud” and very little “sting” in the sensations it creates.)

   • 2013, Sophie Morgan, No Ordinary Love Story‎, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 294:

     It still wasn’t what I’d call painful but as he swung his arm and the strands of the flogger hit me together it felt like a solid thud rather than a number of different tails stinging me.

Coordinate terms

• (BDSM): sting, thump

Derived terms

• thud and blunder

Translations

the sound of a dull impact

Bulgarian: приглушен звук от падане (priglušen zvuk ot padane) Czech: žuch (cs), žuchnutí n, zadunění n, bouchnutí (cs) n Danish: bump Finnish: tömähdys (fi), jysähdys (fi), mätkähdys (fi), jymähdys (fi) French: martèlement (fr) m German: Bollern n; dumpfer Knall m Greek: Ancient: δοῦπος m (doûpos) Icelandic: dynkur (is) m Irish: tuairt f, trost f Italian: tonfo (it) m Japanese: ドスンと言う (dosunto iu) Macedonian: тап звук m (tap zvuk), тре́сок m (trésok) Malagasy: ngodongodona (mg) Malay: Jawi: دبق / لبق Rumi: debak / lebak (ms) Maori: ngahoa, takuru Occitan: bomb (oc) m, bombe (oc) m Polish: łup (pl), łubudu, tąpnięcie (pl), łomot (pl) Portuguese: baque m Romanian: bufnitură (ro) f Russian: глухо́й звук m (gluxój zvuk) Serbo-Croatian: mukao zvuk m Spanish: golpe sordo m Swedish: duns (sv) c Turkish: güm (tr), pat (tr) Vietnamese: ịch (vi)

Verb

thud (third-person singular simple present thuds, present participle thudding, simple past and past participle thudded)

1. (intransitive) To make the sound of a dull impact.
   • 1849, George Frederick Ruxton, Life in the Far West (non-fiction), New York: Harper & Brothers, page 183:

     At the same instant two arrows thudded into the carcass of the deer over which he knelt, passing but a few inches from his head.

   • 1874, Mrs George Cupples, “Mrs Glen and the Aberfoyle Orphanage”, in The Poetical Remains of William Glen, Edinburgh: William Paterson, page 47:

     […] while the tears streamed from his eyes, and his tail waved and thudded in perfect time on the sanded floor. But for the said thudding of the tail, I would have stopped, fancying the poor animal's nerves had been set on edge.

Synonyms

• (a dull sound, to make a dull sound): flump, plunk, crump

Coordinate terms

• clang, clash, crash

Translations

to make the sound of a dull impact

Czech: žuchnout (cs) pf, bouchnout pf, zadunět pf Finnish: tömähtää (fi), jysähtää, mätkähtää (fi), jymähtää (fi) French: marteler (fr) German: bollern (de), stampfen (de), dumpf knallen Greek: Ancient: δουπέω (doupéō) Maori: hapuru, ngahoa Occitan: bombar (oc) Polish: łomotać (pl), walić (pl), stąpać (pl) Spanish: darse un batacazo Turkish: gümlemek (tr), güm etmek

Middle Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /θʊd/

Etymology 1

Uncertain. Perhaps Onomatopoeic (compare etymology 2).

Noun

thud

1. a blast or gust of wind
   1. a whirling motion accompanied by a loud noise, like a gust of wind
   2. a loud report or crack
      • 1420, Androw of Wyntoun, The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland‎:

        A sudane thud [R. thude] maid sic a frusch That all the wyndois at a brusche … Brak vp

        (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. a blow, thump

Etymology 2

Perhaps Onomatopoeic. Perhaps related to Middle English þudde.

Verb

thud

1. to come or pass with a gust of turbulence and accompanying dull noise
   • 1590, Burel, J. Pilgr., The Passage of the Pilgremer‎:

     The borial blasts … Not caldly, bot baldlie, They thudit throw the treis

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Conjugation

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Further reading

• “thud”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.