Other forms: wounded, wounds, wounding
A wound is an open cut in the skin, often deep. A deep wound, treat the wound, wound care.
It is an injury that breaks the skin, which is what separates it from a bruise or a sprain, and the risk is bleeding and infection. Cleaning and closing are the two things that matter. Figuratively a wound is lasting emotional hurt: old wounds, reopen a wound. Note that the word is also the past tense of wind, spelt the same and pronounced differently — the clock is wound.
1nounwoundAn open cut in the skin.
“The nurse cleaned the wound and covered it with a bandage.”
2verbinjureTo injure or hurt somebody.
“Two soldiers were wounded in the attack and taken to hospital.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
wound is an injury.
Old English wund is Germanic and goes back to a root about striving or fighting. The past tense of wind is a completely separate word that happens to be spelt the same.
Proto-Indo-European
*wen- — to strive, toil, win
Proto-Germanic
*wundō — wound
Proto-West Germanic
*wundu
Old English
wund
Middle English
wund
English, today
wound
Noun from Middle English wund, from Old English wund, from Proto-West Germanic wundu, from Proto-Germanic wundō (“wound”), from Proto-Indo-European wen- (“to strive, toil, win”). 2 Cognate with stq Wuunde (“wound”), cim bunta (“wound”), Dutch wond, wonde (“wound”), German Wunde (“wonde”), lb Wonn (“wound”), Yiddish וווּנד (“wound”), Icelandic und (“wound”), Gothic 𐍅𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌰 (“wound”) (whence 𐍅𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌿𐍆𐌽𐌹 (“disease, plague”)); also xcl վանդեմ (“to destroy; to catch a disease”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA