different between astonishment vs wander

English

Etymology

From astonish +? -ment.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??st?n??m?nt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??st??n??m?nt/

Noun

astonishment (countable and uncountable, plural astonishments)

1. The feeling or experience of being astonished; great surprise.

   Synonyms: amazement, stupefaction, wonder, wonderment

   • 1630, John Milton, “On Shakespear” in Poems of Mr. John Milton, London: Ruth Raworth, 1645 p. 27,^[1]

     Thou in our wonder and astonishment

     Hast built thy self a live-long Monument.

   • 1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, London: Benjamin Motte, Volume 2, Part 3, Chapter 7, p. 98,^[2]

     […] he dismissed all his Attendants with a turn of his Finger; at which, to my great astonishment, they vanished in an Instant, like Visions in a Dream, when we awake on a sudden.

   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, London: for the author, Volume 3, Chapter 1, p. 14,^[3]

     At these words, Marianne’s eyes expressed the astonishment, which her lips could not utter.

   • 1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Boston: L.C. Page, Chapter 3, p. 41,^[4]

     Marilla’s astonishment could not have been greater if Matthew had expressed a predilection for standing on his head.

   • 2004, Andrea Levy, Small Island, London: Review, Chapter 33, p. 330,^[5]

     Imagine my astonishment when, reaching the bustling street, every Englishwoman I look on is also attired in a dowdy housecoat.

2. Something very surprising.

   Synonyms: marvel, stunner (colloquial)

   • 1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, New York: Scribner, Book 2, Chapter 9, p. 444,^[6]

     To find Ned Silverton among the habitual frequenters of Mrs. Hatch’s drawing-room was one of Lily’s first astonishments;

   • 1964, Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Puffin, 1998, Chapter 18, p. 83,^[7]

     Everything he had seen so far — the great chocolate river, the waterfall, the huge sucking pipes, the candy meadows, the Oompa-Loompas, the beautiful pink boat, and most of all, Mr. Willy Wonka himself — had been so astonishing that he began to wonder whether there could possibly be any more astonishments left.

3. (obsolete) Loss of physical sensation; inability to move a part of the body.

   Synonyms: paralysis, numbness

   • 1583, Philip Barrough, The Method of Phisicke, London: Thomas Vautroullier, Book 3, Chapter 37, p. 126,^[8]

     […] there followeth astonishment of the leg that is neere, that it can neither be stretched out right, nor he cannot go on his feet.

   • 1634, Philemon Holland (translator), The Historie of the World, London: Adam Islip, Book 29, Chapter 5, p. 363,^[9]

     […] whosoever maketh water in the same place where a dog hath newly pissed, so as both vrines be mingled together, shall immediatly find a coldnesse and astonishment in his loines,

4. (obsolete) Loss of mental faculties, inability to think or use one's senses.

   Synonym: stupor

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalm 60.3,^[10]

     Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment.

   • 1678, Aphra Behn, The Lives of Sundry Notorious Villains, London: for the author, Chapter 2, p. 30,^[11]

     Upon the Stage he so charmed the people into astonishment with his babble, that he made them buy off amain his Drugs;

5. (obsolete) Loss of composure or presence of mind.

   Synonyms: consternation, dismay

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, London: William Ponsonby, Book 1, Canto 3, pp. 35-36,^[12]

     […] where of his cruell rage

     Nigh dead with feare, and faint astonishment,

     Shee found them both in darkesome corner pent;

   • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, London: Andrew Crooke, Chapter 46, p. 374,^[13]

     […] as when a man ignorant of the Ceremonies of Court, comming into the presence of a greater Person than he is used to speak to, and stumbling at his entrance, to save himselfe from falling, lets slip his Cloake; to recover his Cloake, lets fall his Hat; and with one disorder after another, discovers his astonishment and rusticity.

Related terms

• astonish
• astonished
• astonishing

Translations

English

Etymology

From Middle English wandren, wandrien, from Old English wandrian (“to wander, roam, fly around, hover; change; stray, err”), from Proto-Germanic *wandr?n? (“to wander”), from Proto-Indo-European *wend?- (“to turn, wind”), equivalent to wend +? -er (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Scots wander (“to wander”), German wandern (“to wander, roam, hike, migrate”), Swedish vandra (“to wander, hike”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?w?nd?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?w?nd?/
• (West Midlands, especially Birmingham) IPA^(key): /?w?nd?/, IPA^(key): /?w?nd?/
• Rhymes: -?nd?(?)
• Hyphenation: wan?der

Verb

wander (third-person singular simple present wanders, present participle wandering, simple past and past participle wandered)

1. (intransitive) To move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood.

   • They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins.

   • “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; […]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.

   Synonyms: err, roam

2. (intransitive) To stray; stray from one's course; err.
   • Bible, Psalms cxix.10:

     O, let me not wander from thy commandments.

3. (intransitive) To commit adultery.

   Synonym: cheat

4. (intransitive) To go somewhere indirectly or at varying speeds; to move in a curved path.
5. (intransitive) Of the mind, to lose focus or clarity of argument or attention.

   Synonym: drift

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

wander (countable and uncountable, plural wanders)

1. (countable) The act or instance of wandering.

2. (uncountable) The situation where a value or signal etc. deviates from the correct or normal value.

   Hyponym: polar wander

   baseline wander in ECG signals

Translations

Anagrams

• Andrew, Darwen, Warden, drawne, warden, warned

German

Pronunciation

Verb

wander

1. inflection of wandern:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative