From PIE *wen- (to strike) — a pan-Germanic word of exceptional stability, with irregular modern pronunciation.
An injury to living tissue caused by a cut, blow, or other impact, typically one in which the skin is broken.
From Old English 'wund' (wound, injury, hurt, sore), from Proto-Germanic *wundō (wound), from PIE *wen- (to beat, to wound, to strike). The word is pan-Germanic in distribution and has remained remarkably stable in both form and meaning across over a thousand years: Old English 'wund,' Old Norse 'und,' Old High German 'wunta,' Gothic 'wunds' (wounded) — all meaning essentially the same thing. The PIE root *wen- may also connect to the idea of pain or affliction more generally, though the wounding sense is the most specific and consistent reflex. The
The modern pronunciation 'woond' (/wuːnd/) is irregular — by the normal rules of English sound change, Old English 'wund' should have become something rhyming with 'fund.' The long vowel was likely influenced by the past tense of the unrelated verb 'wind' (wound/wound), creating a homograph: 'wound' (an injury) and 'wound' (past tense of 'wind') are spelled identically but have completely different origins.