asondar

A rare, now essentially obsolete variant of sondar, meaning to sound or take soundings — measuring the depth of water, or figuratively probing or investigating something. The dictionary marks it "poco usado" (little used); modern Spanish uses sondar or sondear almost exclusively.

• Los marineros asondaban el fondo antes de acercarse a la costa. — The sailors took soundings of the seabed before approaching the coast.
• En crónicas antiguas se lee "asondar las aguas del río". — In old chronicles you read "asondar las aguas del río".
• Hoy diríamos sondear el terreno, no asondarlo. — Today we'd say sondear el terreno, not asondarlo.

Using asondar in modern writing at all — it reads as archaic or a typo for sondar/sondear to virtually any contemporary Spanish speaker, so it's worth recognizing in old texts but not worth using.

Often confused with sondear.