hound

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Contents

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English honde, from Old English hund, from Proto-Germanic *hundaz (confer West Frisian hûn, Dutch hond, German Hund, Danish hund), from pre-Germanic *ḱu̯n̥-tós, *ḱwn̥tós (confer Latvian sùnt-ene (big dog)), englargement of Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ (dog) (cf. Welsh cwn (dogs), Tocharian AB ku, Lithuanian šuõ), Armenian շուն (šun). Possible relation to Albanian hundë (nose, scent, instinct), from the Proto-Indo-European root *neh₂s- ~ *nh₂es, is uncertain.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

hound (plural hounds)

  1. A dog, particularly a breed with a good sense of smell developed for hunting other animals. (hunt hound, hunting hound, hunting dog, hunter)
  2. (by extension) Someone who seeks something.
  3. (by extension) A male who constantly seeks the company of receptive females.
    • 1915, Norman Duncan, "A Certain Recipient", in Harper's, volume 122, number 787, December 1915, republished in Harper's Monthly Magazine, volume 122, December 1915 to May 1916, page 108,
      "Are you alone, Goodson? [] I thought, perhaps, that the [] young woman, Goodson, who supplanted Mary?" []
      "She had a good many successors, John."
      "You are such a hound, in that respect, Goodson," said Claywell, "and you have always been such a hound, that it astounds me to find you—unaccompanied."

In more recent times, hound has been replaced by dog but the sense remains the same.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

hound (third-person singular simple present hounds, present participle hounding, simple past and past participle hounded)

  1. (transitive) To persistently harass.
    He hounded me for weeks, but I was simply unable to pay back his loan.

Translations[edit]

Anagrams[edit]