Meanings
- A small wooden doll that is covered with a cape and made to vanish as part of a magic trick.
I'd pull out my cards and card-boxes, and the bonus genius or the wooden doll, and then I'd spread a nice clean cloth (which I always carried with me) on the table, and then I'd go to work.
1967, Henry Mayhew, London labour and the London poor1 more example
The trick of the little figure that vanishes, the Bonus Genius, as it was called, can be traced back to the seventeenth century, when this trick was recorded in one of the earliest magic books […]
1979, Charles J. Pecor, The craft of magic: easy-to-learn illusions for spectacular performances - obsoleteA benevolent spirit or angel, seen as influencing a person's decisions in a beneficial way.
I dailie and hourelie offend in thought, word, and deed, in a relapſe by mine owne weakneſſe and wilfulneſſe, my bonus Genius, my good protecting angel is gone, I am falne from that I was, or would bee, worſe and worſe, […]
1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Cure of Deſpaire by Phyſick, good counſell, comforts, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 4, member 3, subsection 6, page 707Antonyms: malus genius
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA benevolent spirit or angel, seen as influencing a person's decisions in a beneficial way.
Origin
- Latinbonus genius
- Englishbonus genius
Learned borrowing from Latin bonus genius (literally “good spirit”).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish hyvä haltija
- hyvä haltijagood spirit or angel, seen as influencing a person's decisions in a good way
French bon génie
- bon géniegood spirit or angel, seen as influencing a person's decisions in a good way
Polish dobry duch
- dobry duchgood spirit or angel, seen as influencing a person's decisions in a good way
Cite this entry
bonus genius. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonus%20genius
“bonus genius.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonus%20genius. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bonus genius,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bonus%20genius.
Source: bonus genius on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.