Reverberates

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To produce a series of echoes or repeated sounds that continue after the original noise stops
2. To cause sound waves to reflect repeatedly, creating a prolonged or amplified acoustic effect
3. To send back or reflect sound in a way that causes it to linger or bounce within a space

Etymology: The verb has a physical origin in a whipping. Latin "verber" meant a rod or lash, and "verberare" meant to beat or strike with one. Add the prefix "re-", meaning "back" or "again", and "reverberare" described a blow that came back: the Romans used it of light and heat rebounding off a surface, and of anything driven back by force. English borrowed the word through French, and it reached Middle English in the sense "to send back", so the echo was once a kind of physical return rather than a sound. The sense of sound lingering in a space came later, and its polish came from the theatre. In "Twelfth Night", written around 1601–1602 and published in 1623, William Shakespeare used the related adjective "reverberate" for a ringing, echoing sound, and that usage helped establish the acoustic meaning that now dominates.

Synonyms: echoes, resonates

Antonyms: silences