bonanza

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bəˈnæn.zə/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish bonanza (“fair weather at sea; prosperity”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which in American Spanish meant a rich vein of ore.^[3][5] The Spanish word comes from Medieval Latin bonacia (“calm sea”),^[2][4][6] an alteration of Latin malacia (“calm sea”), itself from Ancient Greek μαλακία (malakía, “softness”).^[2][4][6][5] The first part was taken to be Latin malus “bad” and replaced with bonus “good”.^[2][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bonus, in reference to investment in Mexican mines.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Spanish sense of good weather and good luck passed to a rich lode of ore, especially the great silver mines of the Comstock Lode,^[7][5][6] and then to any source of sudden wealth or great abundance,^[2][4][6] a figurative sense attested by 1830.^[3]

Timeline

• 1826 – first recorded in English, in a letter to The Times about Mexican mines.^[3]
• 1829 – the first date in Merriam-Webster.^[4]
• 1830 – great abundance of something.^[3]
• 1842 – the OED's first quotation;^[7] Barnhart gives 1844.^[5]
• 1883 – bonanza farm, a large, highly profitable farm.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A rich deposit of ore or oil.
2. A source of great or sudden wealth, profit or luck.
3. A very large amount of something.

References

1. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
6. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. [1] [2] [3] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press