bellow

What it means

1. The deep roar of a large animal, or any similar loud noise.

   There was a tap at a door, a bull's bellow from within, and I was face to face with the Professor.

   1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC

In a sentence

There was a tap at a door, a bull's bellow from within, and I was face to face with the Professor.

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰel-“to sound, roar”
2. Old Englishbelgan
3. Middle Englishbelwen
4. Englishbellow

From Middle English belwen, from Old English belgan, bylgan (“to become angry, to swell with rage”), ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to sound, roar”), whence also belg (“leather bag”), bellan (“to roar”), blāwan (“to blow”). Cognate with German bellen (“to bark”), Russian бле́ять (bléjatʹ, “baa, bleat”). Compare billow (“wave”), of the same root, also bulge, with related etymology to swelling. Potentially related to bawl, Swedish böl (“bawl”).