sounder

Pluralsounders

1. 1
   adjective

   Comparative of sound.

   The repaired bridge is sounder now than it has been in decades.

   The committee chose the sounder of the two arguments.

   Note

   The ordinary comparative, and an old one: Old English already had ġesundra. It takes whichever meaning of sound the context needs (healthier, more secure, more reliable) and is most at home with abstract nouns: a sounder argument or, in Trains Illustrated in 1961, "a sounder economic basis." The same spelling also covers three unrelated nouns. One comes from making a noise, one from French sonder, and one from an old word for a herd of swine.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A group of wild boar living and traveling together.

   The wild-swine counterpart to a wolf pack or a flock of geese.

   A sounder rooted through the undergrowth, leaving the soil churned for yards.

   The ranger reported a large sounder moving down toward the valley stream.

   Note

   Nothing to do with noise: this sounder comes through Old Northern French sondre, probably from Old English sunor, "herd of swine," built on an old Germanic word for swine or boar. It is the collective noun for wild boar, and T. H. White's The Once and Future King (1958) uses it naturally in the plural, of wild boars "whose sounders would at this season be furiously rooting about."

3. 3
   nouncountable

   Something or someone that produces a sound.

   Engineers installed a backup sounder in case the main alarm failed.

   The control panel links every sounder in the building to one switch.

   Similaralarm

   Note

   Plain English word-building: sound plus -er, a thing that sounds. In use it mostly names a device that beeps, buzzes or rings, as in a telephone with an electronic sounder. The telegraph clicker, the dated stethoscope and the broadcast sting all grow from this same formation. The depth-measuring sounder only looks like a relative, since it comes from French sonder and measures rather than makes noise.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A young wild boar, not yet fully grown.

   A sounder broke from the thicket just ahead of the older animals.

   The tracker noted the small prints of a sounder among the larger ones.

   Note

   The same herd word applied to a single animal: alongside the group of wild boar, sounder can name one young boar. Because both meanings concern wild boar, the sentence has to decide. A lone sounder at its mother's heels is a young animal, while sounders rooting through the woods are more likely whole herds.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A fishfinder; an electronic device that locates fish underwater by emitting and reading sound waves.

   Modern boats come fitted with a sounder that maps the lakebed and marks schools of fish.

   She watched arches appear on the sounder, signaling fish below the hull.

   Similarfishfinder

   Note

   An angler's name for the fishfinder, borrowed from the nautical vocabulary of soundings: an instrument for reading what lies beneath the hull is put to work spotting fish. Fishing talk uses sounder and fishfinder interchangeably. Outside that world, fishfinder is the clearer word, since sounder alone could mean several unrelated things.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A device for measuring water depth at sea by taking soundings.

   The navigator relied on the ship's sounder to chart a safe course through the shoals.

   Before electronic instruments, a weighted sounder gave the only reliable read of depth.

   Note

   Here the "sound" is not noise at all. This family comes from French sonder, and a sounding is a measurement of depth, so a sounder is whatever takes one. At sea the word works alongside its partner sounding: the sounder takes soundings, and the soundings go on the chart. Do not read it as something that makes a noise; it measures.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A person who takes soundings, measuring water depth from a vessel.

   The captain trusted the sounder's reading before steering into the narrow strait.

   Standing at the bow, the sounder lowered the lead and read the marked line.

   Similarleadsman

   Note

   The sailor rather than the instrument: the person who takes soundings carries the same name as the depth-measuring device. Context separates them. A sounder who reads, calls or reports the depth is a crew member, while one that is fitted or installed is equipment. Both belong to the same nautical vocabulary.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A telegraph instrument used instead of a recording register, by which incoming messages are read by ear from the clicks it makes.

   Experienced telegraphers preferred the sounder, turning its clicks straight into words.

   The sounder clattered out the incoming message dot by dot.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A brief musical sequence used in television, radio, and similar media; a sting.

   The producer dropped a punchy sounder between the interview and the ad break.

   Listeners recognized the station instantly from its familiar sounder.

   Similarsting

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