wonderful

Etymology

It is formed from English wonder + -ful,^[2][3][4] first as inherited from Old English wundorful, also wunderfull,^[5][6][7][2] and then inherited from Middle English wonderful.^[7][5] The Old English noun wundor is from Proto-Germanic *wundran,^[8] and the OED and Etymonline call it of unknown origin.^[2][8] It has cognates in Old Saxon wundar, Dutch wonder, Old High German wuntar and Old Norse undr.^[2][8] The OED compares the adjective with Middle Low German wonderfull,^[2] and Dictionary.com with German wundervoll.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Marvellous, such as to excite wonder: late Old English, in glosses on Aldhelm.^[2] Etymonline glosses the Old English word as extraordinary, marvellous, unnatural or magical.^[8] The MED's senses are the same, and one of its early quotations is Trevisa's account of the wonders of Britain, of which four beeþ most wonderful (before 1387).^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word first described what was strange or beyond nature, and by about 1200 it also meant exceptional in quality, as if marvellous.^[8] From the mid-14th century it could mean great in degree,^[8] and for a time, from about 1380 to 1583, also filled with wonder, of the person who felt it.^[2] The adverbial use, wonderful cruel and the like, is recorded from about 1400,^[2][7] and Johnson (1755) called it improper, though he quoted it from 2 Chronicles ("wonderful great").^[9] Johnson defined the adjective as admirable, strange, astonishing.^[9] The OED notes that the word could be used trivially for surprisingly large or fine,^[2] and Merriam-Webster now treats the sense "unusually good" as a general term of approval.^[5] The English Dialect Dictionary found the word in general dialect use: as an adjective for great or large in Scotland, West Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, of a sick or very old person who just keeps going in West Yorkshire, and as an adverb for very in Scotland and much of England.^[10] Old English also had wundorlic, which survived into Middle English as wonderli.^[8]

Timeline

• late Old English – such as to excite wonder; marvellous.^[2][3]
• c. 1200 – of exceptional quality.^[8]
• mid-14th century – great in degree.^[8]
• c. 1380 – filled with wonder or admiration (obsolete by 1583).^[2]
• c. 1400 – adverb, wonderfully, very.^[2]
• 1727 – noun, the wonderful, that which is wonderful.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Very good; excellent or delightful: We spent a wonderful week by the lake.^[11][5][12]
2. Arousing wonder; astonishing or marvellous: The comet was a wonderful sight.^{[11][5][12][2]}
3. (dialect) Great or large in amount.^[10]
4. (obsolete) Miraculous.^[5][7]

Noun

1. the wonderful: that which is wonderful.^[2]

Adverb

1. (dialect) Very, extremely.^[5][2][10]

Word family

• wonderfully
• wonderfulness
• unwonderful

Related words

• wonder
• wonderland
• wonderment
• wondrous

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt