marvelous

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English merveillous,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Old French merveillos (“marvellous, wonderful”),^[2][6][5] in Anglo-Norman merveillus, recorded from 1113–19,^[7][8] and in modern French merveilleux.^[2][6] The French adjective is formed from merveille (“a wonder”), the source of marvel,^[2][4][6] from Vulgar Latin *miribilia, an alteration of Latin mīrābilia (“wonderful things”), the neuter plural of mīrābilis (“wonderful”), from mīror (“to wonder at”) and mīrus (“wonderful”).^[2] The MED notes that many Middle English spellings show the influence of the adjective merveil and the noun merveille.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Causing wonder; of wonderful appearance or quality: about 1300.^[2] The MED's early quotations, from about 1350 and the Wycliffite Bible (before 1382), speak of "marvellous things" and "marvellous deeds".^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the adjective already meant both "astonishing, surprising" and "admirable, splendid, excellent".^[3] It was also used as an adverb, "wonderfully, exceedingly", from the early 14th century, a use now archaic or obsolete.^[2][3][6] Johnson (1755) gave "wonderful; strange; astonishing" and "surpassing credit", quoting Psalm 118, "it is marvellous in our eyes".^[9] From 1715 it was used specifically of poetry concerned with the supernatural, and the marvellous (1749) was what is prodigious or extravagantly improbable.^[10][6] The weakened sense "splendid, very nice" is recorded by 1924.^[2][10] A noun marvellous, "a dandy", after French merveilleux, is recorded only rarely, from 1819.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – merveillous, causing wonder.^[2]
• early 14th century – as an adverb, wonderfully (now archaic).^[2][3]
• 1715 – of poetry, concerned with the supernatural.^[10]
• 1749 – the marvellous, the prodigious or improbable.^[10]
• 1924 – weakened sense, splendid, very nice.^[2][10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Extremely good; splendid or excellent: We had a marvelous week at the lake.^[11][4][6]
2. Causing great wonder or astonishment; extraordinary.^[11][4][10]
3. Hard to believe; improbable or miraculous.^[11][4]
4. Of poetry or fiction: dealing with the supernatural.^[6][10]

Word family

• marvelously
• marvelousness
• marvellousness
• unmarvelous

Related words

• marvel
• miracle
• admire
• mirage
• mirror

Usage notes

Marvelous is the American spelling, and British English writes marvellous, with the same doubling of l in marvellously and marvellousness.^[11][12][6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f 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)
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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 h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House