Etymology

wonderful

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Today it means: Tending to excite wonder; surprising, extraordinary. Full definition →

Middle English wonderful ← Old English wundorful ← Proto-West Germanic *wundrafull
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*wundrafull
  2. Old English · inherited fromwundorful“wonderful”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromwonderful
  4. English todaywonderful

From Middle English wonderful, wondirful, from Old English wundorful (“wonderful”), from Proto-West Germanic *wundrafull, equivalent to wonder + -ful. Cognate Dutch wondervol (“wonderful”), German wundervoll (“wonderful”). Compare Old English wuldorfull (“glorious”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.