astonishment

Etymology

It is formed from English astonish + -ment.^[2][3][4][5] Astonish is an alteration of the earlier verb astonen, also astonien,^[6][7][4] which is from Old French estoner (“to stun, daze”),^[4][6][8] from Vulgar Latin *extonō, from ex- (“out”) and tonō (“to thunder”),^[4][6] so that the verb literally meant "to leave someone thunderstruck".^[4] Johnson (1755) derived the noun from French estonnement.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Loss of physical sensation; paralysis or numbness: the OED's first quotation is from 1576, in G. Baker's translation of Gesner's Newe Jewell of Health.^[2] Etymonline also dates "paralysis" to the 1570s,^[4] and Merriam-Webster dates the noun to 1566.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The noun follows the older sense of the verb, "to stun, strike senseless".^[4] It first named a real bodily numbness, a sense that lasted until the middle of the 17th century,^[2][3] and in 1600 it was even used of teeth set on edge.^[2] From there it moved to the mind: first a stupor or bewilderment, as in the King James Bible's "wine of astonishment" (Psalms 60:3), and a loss of nerve, dismay or dread, a use now archaic.^[2][3][10] Johnson (1755) still joins fear and wonder, defining it as amazement and confusion of mind from either.^[9] The sense that survives is the overpowering surprise caused by something unexpected or unaccountable, recorded from the 1590s,^[2][4][3] and the same 1611 Bible also uses the word for the thing that causes such a feeling (Deuteronomy 28:37: "Thou shalt become an astonishment, a prouerbe, and a by-worde").^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1566 – the state of being astonished, at first paralysis or numbness (now obsolete).^[10] The OED's first quotation for this is from 1576,^[2] and Etymonline dates it to the 1570s.^[4]
• 1593 – loss of presence of mind, dismay, dread, in Sidney's Arcadia (now archaic).^[2]
• 1594 – amazement, great surprise, in T. Bowes's translation of de la Primaudaye's French Academie.^[2]
• 1600 – the setting on edge of the teeth (obsolete).^[2]
• 1611 – stupor, bewilderment (now obsolete), in the King James Bible.^[2][3]
• 1611 – an object or cause of amazement, also in the King James Bible.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Great surprise or wonder; amazement: The crowd stared in astonishment as the balloon rose.^[10][11][2]
2. Something that causes great surprise.^[11][2][3]
3. (archaic) Dismay or consternation; loss of nerve.^[10][2]
4. (obsolete, 1611–1725) A state of stupor or bewilderment.^[2][10][3]
5. (obsolete, 1576–1656) Loss of physical feeling; paralysis or numbness.^[2][10][3]

Related words

• astonish
• astonishing
• astound
• stun
• thunder

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
8. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins