From Middle English stond, stounde, stound (“hour, time, season, moment”), from Old English stund (“a period of time, while, hour, occasion”), from Proto-West Germanic *stundu, from Proto-Germanic *stundō (“point in time, hour”), from Proto-Indo-European *stut- (“prop”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”). Cognate with Scots stound (“while, period of time, moment, sudden pain, pang, stroke, blow”), dated Dutch stond (“hour, time, moment”), Low German Stund (“hour”), German Stunde (“hour”), Danish stund (“time, while”), and Swedish stund (“time, while”). Compare Middle English stunden (“to linger, stay, remain for a while”), Icelandic stunda (“to frequent, pursue”). Related to stand.
What booth wilt thou have? our king reply'd / Now tell me in this stound1765, Percy's Reliques, The King and the Tanner of Tamworth (original license: 1564)
And in that same stound / All suddenly she swapt adown to ground.1883 [a. 1400], Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Clerk's Tale”, in Henry Morley, editor, Cassell's Library of English Literature, volume 1, page 48:
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A moment or instance of urgency; exigence.
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Dialectal A sharp or sudden pain; a shock, an attack.
No wonder that they cried unto the Lord, and felt a stound of despair shake their courage1857, Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture:
ere the point arriued, where it ought, / That seuen-fold shield, which he from Guyon brought / He cast betwene to ward the bitter stound [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
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A stroke or blow (from an object or weapon); (by extension) a lashing; scourging
How many pipes, as many sounds Do still impart To your Sonne's hart / As many deadly wounds : How many strokes, as many stounds, Each stroke a dart, Each stound a smart, Poore captive me confounds.1807, Sir Egerton Brydges, Censura Literaria:
A colt is made of three stounds, I think; it is lighter, much, than the cat. The punishment with the colt is always given without stripping, over the clothes.1843, Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Proceedings of the Court of Inquiry appointed to inquire into the intended mutiny on board the United States Brig of War Somers, on the high seas:
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A fit, an episode or sudden outburst of emotion; a rush.
Several stounds of pain in the cleft between great and second toe (anterior tibial nerve). I forget which side, but I think it was the right. Slight pains in left temple, > pressure. Pain in upper part of right eyeball.1893, The Homoeopathic World
[…] and run away with him, almost whether he will or not, in a stound of unbearable love!1895, Mansie Wauch, The Life of Mansie Wauch: tailor in Dalkeith:
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Astonishment; amazement.
Lightly he started up out of that stound.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
we stood as in a stound, / And wet with tears, like dew, the ground1720, John Gay, “Prologue”, in Poems on Several Occasions:
From Middle English stond, stounde, stound (“hour, time, season, moment”), from Old English stund (“a period of time, while, hour, occasion”), from Proto-West Germanic *stundu, from Proto-Germanic *stundō (“point in time, hour”), from Proto-Indo-European *stut- (“prop”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”). Cognate with Scots stound (“while, period of time, moment, sudden pain, pang, stroke, blow”), dated Dutch stond (“hour, time, moment”), Low German Stund (“hour”), German Stunde (“hour”), Danish stund (“time, while”), and Swedish stund (“time, while”). Compare Middle English stunden (“to linger, stay, remain for a while”), Icelandic stunda (“to frequent, pursue”). Related to stand.
Your wrath, weak boy ? Tremble at mine unless Retraction follow close upon the heels Of that late stounding insult […]1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act IV, scene II, verses 93-95:
Recently weaned children "stound after the breast."1823, Edward Moor, Suffolk words and phrases: or, An attempt to collect the lingual localisms of that county:
stound
verb
Etymology From Middle English stounden, stunden (“to linger, stay, remain for a while”), from Old English *stundian, from Proto-West Germanic *stundōn, from Proto-Germanic *stundōną. Cognate with German stunden (“to defer payment, give time to pay”), Icelandic stunda (“to frequent, pursue”). More at stand.
Etymology From Middle English stounden, stunden (“to linger, stay, remain for a while”), from Old English *stundian, from Proto-West Germanic *stundōn, from Proto-Germanic *stundōną. Cognate with German stunden (“to defer payment, give time to pay”), Icelandic stunda (“to frequent, pursue”). More at stand.