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Origin and history of roar

roar(v.)

Middle English roren, "shout out, cry out with a full, loud, continued sound," from Old English rarian "roar, wail, lament, bellow, cry," probably of imitative origin (compare Middle Dutch reeren, German röhren "to roar;" Sanskrit ragati "barks;" Lithuanian rieju, rieti "to scold;" Old Church Slavonic revo "I roar;" Latin raucus "hoarse," all alike probably imitative).

Of animals, the wind, etc., early 14c. Sense of "laugh loudly and continuously" is by 1815. The meaning "travel in a motor vehicle making a loud noise" is by 1923. Related: Roared; roaring.

roar(n.)

late 14c., rore, "the loud, continued cry of a large beast," from roar (v.) and Old English gerar. Of other full, loud, continued, confused sounds by c. 1400; specifically of thunder and cannon by 1540s.

also from late 14c.

Entries linking to roar

roaring(adj.)

"that roars or bellows; making or characterized by noise or disturbance," late 14c., present-participle adjective from roar (v.). Used of periods of years characterized by noisy revelry, especially roaring twenties (1930, which OED credits to "postwar buoyancy"); but also, in Australia, roaring fifties (1892, in reference to the New South Wales gold rush of 1851). Roaring Forties in reference to exceptionally rough seas between latitudes 40 and 50 south, is attested from 1841.

The "roaring fifties" are still remembered as the days when Australia held a prosperity never equalled in the world's history and a touch of romance as well. The gold fever never passed away from the land. [E.C. Buley, "Australian Life in Town and Country," 1905]
Roaring boys, roaring lads, swaggerers : ruffians : slang names applied, about the beginning of the seventeenth century, to the noisy, riotous roisterers who infested the taverns and the streets of London, and, in general, acted the part of the Mohocks of a century later. Roaring girls are also alluded to by the old dramatists, though much less frequently. [Century Dictionary]

This is from the use of roar (v.) in old London slang for "behave in a riotous and bullying manner" (1580s).

uproar(n.)

1520s, "outbreak of great disorder, revolt, violent commotion," used by Tyndale and later Coverdale as a loan-translation of German Aufruhr or Dutch oproer "tumult, riot," literally "a stirring up," in German and Dutch bibles (as in Acts xxi.38).

This is from German auf (Middle Dutch op) "up" (see up (adv.)) + ruhr (Middle Dutch roer) "a stirring, motion," which is related to Old English hreran "to move, stir, shake" (see rare (adj.2)). The meaning "noisy shouting" is recorded from 1540s, probably by mistaken association with unrelated roar.

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    thunder
    mid-13c., from Old English þunor "thunder, thunderclap; the god Thor," from Proto-Germanic *thunraz (source also of Old Norse þorr, Old Frisian thuner, Middle Dutch donre, Dutch donder, Old High German donar, German Donner "thunder"), from PIE *(s)tene- "to resound, thunder" (sou
    boom
    mid-15c., bomben, bummyn, "buzz, hum, drone, make a deep, hollow, continuous sound" (earliest use was in reference to bees and wasps), probably echoic of humming. The meaning "make a loud noise, roar, rumble, reverberate" is from 15c. Compare bomb. The meaning "to burst into pros
    raucous
    Spanish ronco, Italian rauco), from or related to ravus "hoarse," from Proto-Italic *rawo-, from PIE echoic base *reu- "to roar..., make hoarse cries" (source also of Sanskrit rayati "barks," ravati "roars;" Greek oryesthai "to howl, roar;" Latin racco..."a roar;" Old Church Slavonic rjevo "I roar;" Lithuanian rėkti "roar;" Old English rarian "to wail, bellow")....
    sough
    "to make a moaning or murmuring sound," Middle English swouen, from Old English swogan "to sound, roar, howl, rustle, whistle..."to rustle," Gothic gaswogjan "to sigh"), from PIE imitative root *(s)wagh- (compare Greek ēkhō, Latin vagire "to cry, roar...The noun is late 14c., swough, "a rushing, whispering sound, a murmuring roar," from the verb....
    boulder
    from a Scandinavian source akin to Swedish dialectal bullersten "noisy stone" (large stone in a stream, causing water to roar...around it), from bullra "to roar" + sten "stone."...
    bell
    belle but is not found elsewhere in Germanic (except as a borrowing); perhaps from an imitative PIE root *bhel- "to sound, roar..." (compare Old English bellan "to roar," and see bellow)....
    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
    shout
    c. 1300, shouten, schowten "to call or cry out loudly," a word of unknown origin; perhaps from the root of shoot (v.) on the notion of "throw the voice out loudly," or related to Old Norse skuta "a taunt" (compare scout (v.2)); both of which are reconstructed to be from PIE root
    south
    Old English suþ "southward, to or toward the south, southern, in the south," from Proto-Germanic *sunthaz, perhaps literally "sun-side" (source also of Old Saxon, Old Frisian suth "southward, in the south," Middle Dutch suut, Dutch zuid, German Süden), and related to base of *sun

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