different between listen vs stound

English

Alternative forms

• lisen (obsolete)
• lis'en (informal)
• lissen (informal)

Etymology

From Middle English listenen, listnen, alteration (due to Middle English listen (“to listen, give heed to”)) of Old English hlysnan (“to listen”), from Proto-Germanic *hlusnijan?, *hlusn?n? (compare Middle High German lüsenen), from Proto-Germanic *hlus?n? (compare Old High German hlos?n), from Proto-Indo-European *?lew- (“to hear”) (compare Ancient Greek ????? (klaí?, “I make known, famous”), Welsh clywed (“to hear”), Latin clue? (“I am famous”), Lithuanian klausýti, Old Church Slavonic ??????? (slušati, “to hear”), Sanskrit ??????? (?ró?ati). Related to loud and German lauschen.

Pronunciation

• enPR: l?s'?n, l?s'n, IPA^(key): /?l?s.?n/, [?l?s.n?]
• Rhymes: -?s?n
• Hyphenation: lis?ten

Verb

listen (third-person singular simple present listens, present participle listening, simple past and past participle listened)

1. (intransitive) To pay attention to a sound or speech.
2. (intransitive) To expect or wait for a sound, such as a signal.

   • It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. […]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts.

   • He reined Wrangle to a walk, halted now and then to listen, and then proceeded cautiously with shifting and alert gaze.

3. (intransitive) To accept advice or obey instruction; to agree or assent.

   • Never listen when they tell you that Man and the animals have a common interest […].

4. (transitive, archaic) To hear (something or someone), to pay attention to.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book XX:

     ‘But, sir, lyars ye have lystened, and that hath caused grete debate betwyxte you and me.’

   • 1592, William Shakespeare, 1 Hen VI: v 3

     Lady, vouchsafe to listen what I say.

Usage notes

In English, listen and hear are two primary verbs relating to audial perception. To hear represents automatic, unconscious, or passive perception of sound, while listen generally represents intentional, conscious, or purposeful use of the sense of hearing. The difference is expressed in the following quotation:

As the silence took hold in the darkness, Sam realized that she had been hearing, though not listening to, various low-level sounds—the hum of air conditioning and life support, the pulse of some faraway oxygen pump, the faint buzz of the electrical and lighting systems. —Justin Richards (1999) Demontage, chapter 5, page 92.

A similar distinction exists between see and watch in English.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:listen.

Synonyms

• (to pay attention): attend, behear, give ear, hark, hear, heed, list, mind, note, pay attention
• (to expect or wait for a sound): await, anticipate, expect, wait for
• (to accept advice or instruction): agree, assent, hearken, mind, obey
• (to hear): hear, mind, heed
• See also Thesaurus:listen

Antonyms

• (to pay attention): ignore
• (to accept advice or instruction): disobey, disregard

Coordinate terms

• speak
• talk

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

listen (plural listens)

1. An instance of listening.

   Synonym: (of recorded audio) play

See also

• hear

Anagrams

• ELINTs, SILENT, Teslin, enlist, inlets, leints, silent, tinsel

Czech

Etymology

list +? -en

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?l?st?n]

Noun

listen m inan

1. (botany) bract

Further reading

• listen in P?íru?ní slovník jazyka ?eského, 1935–1957
• listen in Slovník spisovného jazyka ?eského, 1960–1971, 1989

Danish

Noun

listen c

1. definite singular of liste
2. definite singular of list

Dutch

Pronunciation

Noun

listen

1. Plural form of list

Anagrams

• instel, sintel, stel in

German

Etymology

From Liste +? -en.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?l?stn?]
• Hyphenation: lis?ten
• Homophone: Listen

Verb

listen (weak, third-person singular present listet, past tense listete, past participle gelistet, auxiliary haben)

1. to list

Conjugation

Synonyms

• auflisten

Derived terms

• auflisten

Related terms

• Liste f

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• lista

Noun

listen m or f

1. definite masculine singular of liste
2. definite masculine singular of list

Spanish

Verb

listen

1. Second-person plural (ustedes) imperative form of listar.
2. Second-person plural (ustedes) present subjunctive form of listar.
3. Third-person plural (ellos, ellas, also used with ustedes^?) present subjunctive form of listar.

Swedish

Noun

listen

1. definite singular of list

Anagrams

• linets, litens, sliten, stilen

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sta?nd/, /stu?nd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /sta?nd/, /stund/
• Rhymes: -a?nd, -u?nd

Etymology 1

From Middle English stond, stounde, stound (“hour, time, season, moment”), from Old English stund (“a period of time, while, hour, occasion”), from Proto-Germanic *stund? (“point in time, hour”), from Proto-Indo-European *stut- (“prop”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh?- (“to stand”). Cognate with Dutch stond (“hour, time, moment”), German Stunde (“hour”), Danish stund (“time, while”), and Swedish stund (“time, while”). Compare Middle English stunden (“to linger, stay, remain for a while”), Icelandic stunda (“to frequent, pursue”). Related to stand.

Alternative forms

• stund, stoind, stoond, stoon, stoun, stuind (Scotland)

Noun

stound (plural stounds)

1. (chronology, obsolete or dialectal) An hour.
   • 1765, Percy's Reliques, The King and the Tanner of Tamworth (original license: 1564):

     What booth wilt thou have? our king reply'd / Now tell me in this stound

2. (obsolete) A tide, season.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chaucer to this entry?)

3. (archaic or dialectal) A time, length of time, hour, while.
   • 1801, Walter Scott, The Talisman:

     He lay and slept, and swet a stound, / And became whole and sound.

4. (archaic or dialectal) A brief span of time, moment, instant.

   Listen to me a little stound.
5. A moment or instance of urgency; exigence.
6. (dialectal) A sharp or sudden pain; a shock, an attack.
   • 1857, Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture:

     No wonder that they cried unto the Lord, and felt a stound of despair shake their courage

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii:

     ere the point arriued, where it ought, / That seuen-fold shield, which he from Guyon brought / He cast betwene to ward the bitter stound [...].

7. A stroke or blow (from an object or weapon); (by extension) a lashing; scourging
   • 1807, Sir Egerton Brydges, Censura Literaria:

     How many pipes, as many sounds Do still impart To your Sonne's hart / As many deadly wounds : How many strokes, as many stounds, Each stroke a dart, Each stound a smart, Poore captive me confounds.

   • 1843, Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry appointed to inquire into the intended mutiny on board the United States Brig of War Somers, on the high seas:

     A colt is made of three stounds, I think; it is lighter, much, than the cat. The punishment with the colt is always given without stripping, over the clothes.

8. A fit, an episode or sudden outburst of emotion; a rush.
   • 1893, The Homoeopathic World:

     Several stounds of pain in the cleft between great and second toe (anterior tibial nerve). I forget which side, but I think it was the right. Slight pains in left temple, > pressure. Pain in upper part of right eyeball.

   • 1895, Mansie Wauch, The Life of Mansie Wauch: tailor in Dalkeith:

     [...] and run away with him, almost whether he will or not, in a stound of unbearable love!

9. Astonishment; amazement.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Edmund Spenser to this entry?)

   • 1720, John Gay, "Prologue", in Poems on Several Occasions

     we stood as in a stound,
     And wet with tears , like dew , the ground

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

stound (third-person singular simple present stounds, present participle stounding, simple past and past participle stounded)

1. (obsolete or dialectal, intransitive) To hurt, pain, smart.
   • 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, Act IV, Scene II, verses 93-95

     Your wrath, weak boy ? Tremble at mine unless

     Retraction follow close upon the heels

     Of that late stounding insult […]

2. (obsolete or dialectal, intransitive) To be in pain or sorrow, mourn.
3. (obsolete or dialectal, intransitive) To long or pine after, desire.
   • 1823, Edward Moor, Suffolk words and phrases: or, An attempt to collect the lingual localisms of that county:

     Recently weaned children "stound after the breast."

Etymology 2

From Middle English stunden (“to linger, stay, remain for a while”). Cognate with Icelandic stunda (“to frequent, pursue”). More at stand.

Verb

stound (third-person singular simple present stounds, present participle stounding, simple past and past participle stounded)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To stand still; stop.
2. (intransitive, Britain dialectal) To stop to listen; pause.

Noun

stound (plural stounds)

1. (Britain dialectal) A stand; a stop.

Etymology 3

From Middle English stound, stonde, stoonde, ston, from Old English stond (“a stand”). Compare stand.

Noun

stound (plural stounds)

1. A receptacle for holding small beer.
   • 1987, Alastair Mackie, Ingaidherins: Selected Poems - Page 54:

     Will Ardnamurchan never end? We're four stounds in a metal box [...]

Anagrams

• Dutson, donuts, stunod

Middle English

Alternative forms

• stounde, stounte, stowunde, stund, stunde, stunt, stonde, stont, stonte, stunden

Etymology

From Old English stund (“a period of time, while, hour, occasion”), from Proto-Germanic *stund? (“point in time, hour”).

Noun

stound

1. A while: a short span of time.
2. Time, especially the proper time for doing something:
   1. A moment, a chance, an opportunity.
   2. A season of the year.
   3. A canonical hour: one of the 3-hour divisions of the day, (Christianity) its divine office.
   4. An hour: one of the 24 divisions of the day.

Descendants

• English: stound
• Scots: stound

Adverb

stound

1. A while: for a short span of time.

References

• "st?und(e" in the Middle English Dictionary

Scots

Etymology 1

From Middle English stound (“a moment”), from Old English stund, Old Norse stund

Noun

stound (plural stounds)

1. A period of time, a moment.
2. (obsolete) A sudden pain, a pang.
3. (Middle Scots, obsolete) A stroke or blow (from an object or weapon).
4. (obsolete) A verbal attack, invective.

Verb

stound (third-person singular present stounds, present participle stoundin, past stoundit, past participle stoundit)

1. (transitive) To inflict pain on, to wound.
2. (intransitive) To hurt, to be painful.

References

• stound n. in A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, Scottish Language Dictionaries, Edinburgh.
• stound v.¹ in A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, Scottish Language Dictionaries, Edinburgh.

Etymology 2

From Middle English stun, stunien; Middle English astound

Verb

stound (third-person singular present stounds, present participle stoundin, past stoundit, past participle stoundit)

1. To astound, to stupefy, to terrify

References

• stound v.² in A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue, Scottish Language Dictionaries, Edinburgh.