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Origin and history of humming

humming(adj.)

1570s, "that hums," present-participle adjective from hum (v.). Meaning "brisk, vigorous, energetic" is from 1680s. Related: Hummingly. Humming-bird (1630s) so called from sound made by the rapid vibration of its wings.

There is a curious bird to see to, called a humming bird, no bigger then a great Beetle. [Thomas Morton, "New English Canaan," 1637]

also from 1570s

Entries linking to humming

hum(v.)

late 14c., hommen "make a murmuring sound to cover embarrassment," later hummen "to buzz, drone" (early 15c.), probably of imitative origin. Sense of "sing with closed lips" is first attested late 15c.; that of "be busy and active" is 1884, perhaps on analogy of a beehive. Related: Hummed.

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    susurrus
    "soft murmuring or humming sound," 1809, earlier as a medical Latin word in English, from Latin susurrus, literally "a humming...
    boom
    hum, drone, make a deep, hollow, continuous sound" (earliest use was in reference to bees and wasps), probably echoic of humming...
    midge
    Watkins, Klein and others suggest an imitative root used for various humming insects and a relationship to Latin musca "fly...
    mosquito
    maksa-, Greek myia, Old English mycg, Modern English midge, Old Church Slavonic mucha), perhaps imitative of the sound of humming...
    swarm
    svarmr "tumult"), by Watkins, etc., derived from PIE imitative root *swer- "to buzz, whisper" (see susurration) on notion of humming...
    drone
    [Popular Science, November 1946] Meaning "a deep, continuous humming sound" is from c. 1500, apparently an independent imitative...
    buzz
    The literal sense of "a humming sound" is from 1640s....
    go
    Old English gan "to advance, walk; depart, go away; happen, take place; conquer; observe, practice, exercise," from West Germanic *gaian (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian gan, Middle Dutch gaen, Dutch gaan, Old High German gan, German gehen), from PIE root *ghē- "to release,
    sound
    "noise, what is heard, sensation produced through the ear," late 13c., soun, from Old French son "sound, musical note, voice," from Latin sonus "sound, a noise," from PIE *swon-o-, from root *swen- "to sound." The unetymological -d was established c. 1350-1550 (see D). Sound-boar
    noise
    c. 1200, "sound of a musical instrument;" mid-13c., "loud speech, outcry, clamor, shouting;" c. 1300, "a sound of any kind from any source," especially a loud and disagreeable sound, from Old French noise "din, disturbance, uproar, brawl" (11c., in modern French only in phrase ch

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