Dictionary

sounder en · ADJ · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• /ˈsaʊndɚ/ (General-American)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Middle English *soundere, from Old English ġesundra, from Proto-Germanic *sundizô, equivalent to sound + -er (comparative suffix).

Meanings

1. (comparative, form-of) comparative form of sound: more sound
   form of sound
   • The Northern Division Traffic Manager has said that there is no present intention of terminating the service, but the hopes previously entertained of expanding it cannot be entertained until it is operating on a sounder economic basis. 1961 April, “Talking of Trains”, in Trains Illustrated, page 199:

sounder en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /ˈsaʊndɚ/ (General-American)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Middle English soundar, sownere, equivalent to sound + -er.

Meanings

1. Something or someone who makes a sound.
   • a telephone with an electronic sounder
2. An instrument used in telegraphy in place of a register, the communications being read by sound.
3. (dated, plural, plural-only) A stethoscope.
4. Synonym of sting (“brief musical sequence in television etc.”).

Forms

Deriveds

telegraph sounder · depth sounder · echo sounder

Synonyms

sting

Translations (1)

fi luotain (sounding device)

sounder en · NOUN · etymology 3

Pronunciation

• /ˈsaʊndɚ/ (General-American)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From French sonder.

Meanings

1. A device for making soundings at sea.
2. A person who takes soundings.
3. A fishfinder.

Forms

sounder en · NOUN · etymology 4

Pronunciation

• /ˈsaʊndɚ/ (General-American)
• (US) audio

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English soundre, from Anglo-Norman soundre, Old Northern French sondre, from a Germanic language, probably Old English sunor (“herd of swine”), from Proto-West Germanic *suniʀu, plural of *sun (“swine, boar”), from Proto-Germanic *sunaz (“boar”), from Proto-Indo-European *sewH- (“to bring forth, bear, give birth”). Cognate with Dutch zeunie (“trough, drinking bowl”).

Meanings

1. A group of wild boar.
   • It was not only that there were wild boars in it, whose sounders would at this season be furiously rooting about, nor that one of the surviving wolves might be slinking behind any tree, with pale eyes and slavering chops. 1958, T[erence] H[anbury] White, chapter II, in The Once and Future King, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, book I (The Sword in the Stone):
   • Each “sounder," or group , of wild swine will be joined by a dominant boar when there are females in estrus. 2019, Alice Percy, Happy Pigs Taste Better: A Complete Guide to Organic and Humane Pasture-Based Pork Production, Chelsea Green Publisher, page 17:
   • Members of a sounder share a home range, and often move around their home range in a group (feral pigs, Gabor et al.,1999). 2008, Richard B. D'Eath and Simon P. Turner, edited by Jeremy N. Marchant-Forde, The Welfare of Pigs, Springer Netherlands, page 21:
2. A young boar.

Forms