Other forms: soundings
A sounding is a measurement of how deep the water is. Take a sounding, soundings of the channel, deep soundings.
It was made by dropping a weighted line marked in fathoms, and the leadsman called the depth aloud — which is where the phrase by the mark twain comes from, and where Mark Twain took his name. Charts are built from thousands of them. Figuratively, to take soundings means to test opinion quietly before committing. Note that sounding here has nothing to do with sound meaning noise.
1nounsoundingA measurement of how deep the water is.
“The captain took soundings as the ship moved slowly into the shallow bay.”
2nounquietA quiet test of opinion.
“Before announcing the plan, the manager took soundings among the staff to see how they felt.”
sounding is a depth measurement.
Proto-Germanic
*sundaz — healthy
Proto-West Germanic
*sund
Old English
sund — sound, safe, whole, uninjured, healthy, prosperous
Middle English
sound
English
sound
English, today
sounding
From sound + -ing. sound comes from Middle English sound, sund, isund, ȝesund, from Old English sund (“sound, safe, whole, uninjured, healthy, prosperous”), from Proto-West Germanic sund, from Proto-Germanic sundaz (“healthy”), merged with synonymous Old English ġesund, from Proto-West Germanic gasund. Cognate with Scots sound, soun (“healthy, sound”), stq suund, gesuund (“healthy”), West Frisian sûn (“healthy”), Dutch gezond (“healthy, sound”), Low German sund, gesund (“healthy”), German gesund (“healthy, sound”), Danish sund (“healthy”), Swedish sund (“sound, healthy”). Possibly related also to Dutch gezwind (“fast, quick”), German geschwind (“fast, quick”), Old English swīþ (“strong, mighty, powerful, active, severe, violent”). See swith.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA