different between stupor vs astonishment

English

Alternative forms

• stupour (obsolete)

Etymology

Late Middle English, borrowed from Latin stupor (“insensibility, numbness, dullness”). Distantly related (from Proto-Indo-European, via Proto-Germanic) to stint, stub, and steep.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?stju?.p?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?stu.p?/, /?stju.p?/
• Rhymes: -u?p?(?)

Noun

stupor (countable and uncountable, plural stupors)

1. A state of greatly dulled or completely suspended consciousness or sensibility; (particularly medicine) a chiefly mental condition marked by absence of spontaneous movement, greatly diminished responsiveness to stimulation, and usually impaired consciousness.
2. A state of extreme apathy or torpor resulting often from stress or shock.

   Synonym: daze

Related terms

• stupefy
• stupefaction
• stupendous
• stupid

Translations

Verb

stupor (third-person singular simple present stupors, present participle stuporing, simple past and past participle stupored) (transitive)

1. To place into a stupor; to stupefy.

References

• “stupor”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• “stupor”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, (Please provide a date or year).

Anagrams

• Portus, Proust, Sprout, Stroup, Troups, sprout

Latin

Etymology

From stupe? (“to be struck senseless, be stunned, be astonished”) +? -or (nominal suffix).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?stu.por/, [?s?t??p?r]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?stu.por/, [?st?u?p?r]

Noun

stupor m (genitive stup?ris); third declension

1. Numbness; dullness, insensibility, stupidity, stupefaction; astonishment, wonder, amazement.

   Synonym: torpor

2. (especially) Dullness, stupidity, stolidity.

Inflection

Third-declension noun.

Derived terms

• stup?r?tus (adjective)

Descendants

References

• stupor in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• stupor in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• stupor in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• stupor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Swedish

Noun

stupor

1. indefinite plural of stupa

Anagrams

• utrops

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