Wind (/WIN d/) noun

Wind can be one of two homographs. This page is about the noun wind. Do not confuse it with the other word, which is mostly a verb, pronounced to rhyme with 'find' and 'mind' - for information about that, see Wind (/waɪnd/ W-EYE-ND) verb.

• The (mainly) noun wind is normally pronounced like the first syllable in 'window' (IPA: /wɪnd/): see also below. The general meaning of this word is 'air', particularly 'moving air'. Several senses have developed of this basic meaning. OED lists some 31, with around 45 subordinate shades of meaning. Some, of course, are obsolete, or from very specialised areas, notably the technology of sailing vessels. Some of the more relevant to readers of AWE are:
  • the natural currents of air in the atmosphere, perceived as aspects of the weather. These are often labelled by compass points which give the direction from which the wind is blowing: a north wind is going to the south (see also compass points). Windward is in the direction from which the wind is coming: one can smell a barbecue best if it is to windward. (The opposite is leeward.) You may also want to see AWE's article on the suffixes -ward and -wards
  • This gives rise to the use of wind to mean 'smell', so 'to have wind of something' is 'to detect it', either literally, as when hounds get wind of a fox, or figuratively, as when a Minister may get wind of a plot against him.
  • [Breaking] Wind is also a euphemism used to refer to the [release of] digestive gas from a person's alimentary canal, either upwards (more bluntly called 'belching') or downwards ('farting', or various locally preferred circumlocutions, such as 'trumping' in Hull). The gas itself is called 'wind', of colloquially with the same words as are used as verbs.
  • Anatomically, wind can also refer to 'breath' or 'breathing', in various constructions: runners, for example, can get their second wind after a period in which they have felt unable to breathe any longer. This gives rise to certain critical terms for speakers: long-winded explanations are those that take too long to be delivered, as they may be by windbags (pompous speakers who have too much 'wind'). (In the vulgar expression "he's all piss and wind", the sense is probably of digestive 'wind'.)
  • The wind section of an orchestra groups the wind instruments: those that are played using the breath. These are divided, usually, into woodwind, like flutes and clarinets, and brass, like trumpets and horns.
• There are some verbal uses of wind derived from the above. These are quite rare.
  • 'To wind something is to perceive its 'wind' or smell on the air. Deer that wind their predators will run.
  • 'To wind' (exceptionally, this is pronounced wEYEnd, IPA: /waɪnd/: see below) a hunting horn is to blow it.
  • A runner or other sportsman who is winded can no longer get enough breath; a boxer or other fighter has received a blow in the stomach after which he struggles to get any breath at all.
  • 'To wind' a baby is to help it get rid of its 'wind' (digestive gas) - by rubbing or patting its back or stomach.
    
    

Pronunciation note: The noun meaning 'movement of air' is normally pronounced, as said above, like the first syllable in 'window'. (Strangely enough, it is the etymologically connected with window: it is the first element. The Scandinavian roots of 'window' mean 'wind and eye'.) In some verse, famously Shakespeare's song "Blow, blow, thou winter wind" (As You Like It II vii), the rhymes point to the pronunciation of the other homograph. Shakespeare rhymes 'wind' with 'unkind':

Blow, blow, thou winter wind.

Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude

This does not seem to be merely an eye-rhyme, but a reflection of the intended pronunciation. One meaning of the verb is pronounced in this fashion, like 'find': this is 'to wind ('sound', or 'blow') a horn, particularly in the hunting field or as an echo of it in musical compositions.