sudden
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English sodeyn, sodain, from Anglo-Norman sodein, from Old French sodain, subdain (“immediate, sudden”), from Vulgar Latin *subitānus (“sudden”), from Latin subitāneus (“sudden”), from subitus (“sudden", literally, "that which has come stealthily”), originally the past participle of subīre (“to come or go stealthily”), from sub (“under”) + īre (“go”). Doublet of subitaneous. Displaced native Old English fǣrlīċ.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
sudden (comparative suddener, superlative suddenest)
- Happening quickly and with little or no warning.
- The sudden drop in temperature left everyone cold and confused.
- 1552, The Boke of Common Prayer [etc.][1], The Letanie:
- From lightninges and tempeſtes, from plage, peſtilence, and famine, from battayle and murther, and from ſodayn death. / Good lord deliver us.
- 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
- I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.
- (obsolete) Hastily prepared or employed; quick; rapid.
- c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, act 1, scene 1:
- Never was such a sudden scholar made.
- 1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes:
- Thus these pious flourishes and colours, examined thoroughly, are like the apples of Asphaltis, appearing goodly to the sudden eye; but look well upon them, or at least but touch them, and they turn into cinders.
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XIV, page 22:
- And if along with these should come
The man I held as half-divine;
Should strike a sudden hand in mine,
And ask a thousand things of home; […]
I should not feel it to be strange.
- (obsolete) Hasty; violent; rash; precipitate.
- c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 2, scene 2:
- I have no joy of this contract to-night: / It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;
Synonyms edit
- (happening quickly): abrupt, precipitous, subitaneous; see also Thesaurus:sudden
- (hasty, rash): hotheaded, impetuous, impulsive; see also Thesaurus:reckless
Antonyms edit
- (antonym(s) of "happening quickly"): gradual; see also Thesaurus:gradual
- (antonym(s) of "all"): unsudden
Derived terms edit
- all of a sudden
- all on a sudden
- all the sudden
- a quick drop and a sudden stop
- a short drop and a sudden stop
- sudden arrhythmic death syndrome
- sudden death
- sudden fiction
- sudden infant death syndrome
- suddenly
- suddenness
- sudden oak death
- sudden sniffing death syndrome
- sudden stratospheric warming
- suddenty
- sudden unexpected death syndrome
- sudden unexplained death syndrome
- sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome
- sudden victory
- suddenwoven
Translations edit
happening quickly and with little or no warning
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Adverb edit
sudden (comparative more sudden, superlative most sudden)
- (poetic) Suddenly.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- Herbs of every leaf that sudden flowered.
Noun edit
sudden (plural suddens)
- (obsolete) An unexpected occurrence; a surprise.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
surprise — see surprise
Further reading edit
- “sudden”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “sudden”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “sudden”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Swedish edit
Noun edit
sudden