Only a couple of days ago, we published an article about the word for lightning (fulmine) so it would be remiss of us if we didn’t talk about its partner in crime tuono (masculine, plural: tuoni) which is the word for thunder in Italian.
Tuono derives from the verb tuonare (or the old literary variation tonare) meaning to thunder or to rumble. It mustn’t be confused with the similar sounding tono (tone) with which it shares the same derivation, the Latin word tonus.
In its most literal sense, tuono refers to the loud rumbling or crashing noise heard after a lightning flash during a storm.
Il rombo del tuono segue il bagliore del lampo.
The rumble of thunder follows the flash of lightning.
However, it can also be used figuratively to describe the thunder, roar or rumble of something that produces a deep, resonant sound such as a cannon, volcano or an oncoming train for example.
Hai sentito il tuono del cannone?
Did you hear the roar of the cannon?
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
