wonderful
/ˈwʌndərfəl/
adjective
Origin
Old English
wundor + -ful — full of wonder
Overview
Meaning Now
- Inspiring delight, pleasure, or admiration; extremely good.
- Remarkable or unusual; formerly used to describe something causing wonder or awe.
Literal older meaning
full of that which causes one to wonder
Language path
Proto-Germanic → Old English → English
Earliest form
wundorful
Earliest period
11. yüzyıl
Journey
The word stems from the Germanic root for 'wonder', which originally implied a sense of shock or supernatural awe. Over centuries, the meaning shifted from the 'terrifying' or 'extraordinary' to a general positive superlative in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Evolution
- Old English
wundorful
“wondrous, marvelous”
- Middle English
wonderfol
“astonishing, extraordinary”
Spelling stabilized as the suffix -ful merged.
- Early Modern English
wonderful
“excellent, superb”
Semantic shift from 'causing awe' to 'very good'.
Connections
Word parts
wonder
root
marvel or astonishment
ful
suffix
characterized by
Related across languages
Dutch
wonderlijk
wonderful or strange
German
wundervoll
wonderful
Related words
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External references use DefinedTerm semantics.