different between thunderbox vs thunder

English

Etymology

thunder +? box; in the sense of a toilet, presumed to be because of the noises that may be made while using it, especially while defecating.

Pronunciation

Noun

thunderbox (plural thunderboxes)

1. (historical) A close-stool, a stool enclosing a chamber pot.
2. (Britain, Australia, slang) An outhouse or latrine: a rudimentary outdoor toilet.
   • 1974 June 13, Donald Gould, "A Groundling?s Notebook: Ice Waterloo" in the New Scientist, page 708:

     Meantime the ICE experts are poring over their photographs, and making measurements, which, presumably, will go into a computer, and out will come the specification for the perfect thunderbox.

   • 1979, The Bulletin, Vol. 100, page 35:

     In the old days, when there was a corrugated iron thunderbox, the Holts? guests were told to approach it with caution: where other thunderboxes had redback spiders, the local ones tended to have taipans.

   • 2005, Benedict le Vay, Eccentric Britain, 2nd, page 57:

     He boobytrapped the ‘thunderbox’ and the next guardsman who sat down was met by a deafening blast. The guardsman and plastic loo seat were hurled one way, the loo paper another, but there were no injuries.
3. A box of metal balls used to create a thunder sound effect.

   Synonym: thunder run

   • 1991, Inger Mattsson, Gustavian opera (page 101)

     At a given signal they are allowed to drop to the floor with a crash, followed by loud peal of thunder from the thunderbox.

Synonyms

• (close-stool): commode; see also Thesaurus:chamber pot
• (outhouse): See Thesaurus:toilet and Thesaurus:bathroom

English

Etymology

From Middle English thunder, thonder, thundre, thonre, thunnere, þunre, from Old English þunor (“thunder”), from Proto-West Germanic *þunr, from Proto-Germanic *þunraz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ten-, *(s)tenh?- (“to thunder”).

Compare astound, astonish, stun. Germanic cognates include West Frisian tonger, Dutch donder, German Donner, Old Norse Þórr (English Thor), Danish torden, Norwegian Nynorsk tore. Other cognates include Persian ????? (tondar), Latin ton?, deton?, Ancient Greek ????? (stén?), ??????? (stenáz?), ?????? (stónos), ??????? (Stént?r), Irish torann, Welsh taran, Gaulish Taranis. Doublet of donner.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???nd?/
• (General American) enPR: th?n?d?r, IPA^(key): /???nd?/
• Rhymes: -?nd?(?)
• Hyphenation: thun?der

Noun

thunder (countable and uncountable, plural thunders)

1. The loud rumbling, cracking, or crashing sound caused by expansion of rapidly heated air around a lightning bolt.

2. A deep, rumbling noise resembling thunder.

3. An alarming or startling threat or denunciation.
   • 1847, William H. Prescott, A History of the Conquest of Peru

     The thunders of the Vatican could no longer strike into the heart of princes.

4. (obsolete) The discharge of electricity; a thunderbolt.
5. (figuratively) The spotlight.

Usage notes

• roll, clap, peal are some of the words used to count thunder e.g. A series of rolls/claps/peals of thunder were heard

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• lightning

Descendants

• Tagalog: tanda

Verb

thunder (third-person singular simple present thunders, present participle thundering, simple past and past participle thundered)

1. To produce thunder; to sound, rattle, or roar, as a discharge of atmospheric electricity; often used impersonally.

2. (intransitive) To make a noise like thunder.

3. (intransitive) To talk with a loud, threatening voice.
4. (transitive) To say (something) with a loud, threatening voice.

5. To produce something with incredible power

Conjugation

Derived terms

• (to say something with a loud, threatening voice): thunderer

Translations

See also

• thundering

Middle English

Noun

thunder

1. Alternative form of thonder