Etymology

soundness

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Today it means: The state or quality of being sound. Full definition →

Middle English soundenes ← Old English *sundnes ← Proto-West Germanic *sundnassī
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*sundnassī“soundness, health”
  2. Old English · inherited from*sundnes
  3. Middle English · inherited fromsoundenes
  4. English todaysoundness

From Middle English soundenes, soundnes, from Old English *sundnes, *ġesundnes (attested in onsundnes), from Proto-West Germanic *sundnassī (“soundness, health”); equivalent to sound + -ness. Cognate with West Frisian sûnens (“soundness, health”), Middle Low German suntnisse (“soundness, health”), Middle High German suntnisse (“soundness, health”), German Gesundnis (“health”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.