astonish

English

Etymology

Probably an alteration (due to words ending in -ish: abolish, banish, cherish, establish, furnish, etc.) of earlier astony, astone, astun (“to astonish, stun”), from Middle English astoneyen, astonen (“to stun, astonish”), variant of stonen, stoneyen (“to stun, astonish”) prefixed with a-. However, compare Old French estonir, a rare variant of estoner (“to stun, astonish”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈstɒnɪʃ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈstɑnɪʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: as‧ton‧ish

Verb

astonish (third-person singular simple present astonishes, present participle astonishing, simple past and past participle astonished)

1. To surprise greatly.

   Synonyms: astound, flabbergast, surprise, astony (obsolete)

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

     "I have no right to give my opinion," said Wickham, "as to his being agreeable or otherwise. I am not qualified to form one. I have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge. It is impossible for me to be impartial. But I believe your opinion of him would in general astonish — and perhaps you would not express it quite so strongly anywhere else. Here you are in your own family."

Derived terms

• astonishable
• astonished
• astonishedly
• astonisher
• astonishing
• astonishment
• astonisht
• reastonish

Translations

to surprise, astound, flabbergast

• Arabic: أَذْهَلَ (ʔaḏhala)
• Azerbaijani: heyrətləndimək, heyrətə salmaq
• Basque: estonatu (eu)
• Bulgarian: учудвам (bg) (učudvam), удивлявам (bg) (udivljavam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 震驚 / 震惊 (zh) (zhènjīng)

• Czech: ohromit (cs)
• Danish: forbavse
• Dutch: verbazen (nl)
• Esperanto: mirigi
• Finnish: hämmästyttää (fi), ällistää
• French: étonner (fr), surprendre (fr)
• Galician: abraiar (gl), anocer, anucir, atordoar
• German: erstaunen (de)
• Greek: εκπλήσσω (el) (ekplísso)

  Ancient Greek: καταπλήσσω (kataplḗssō)

• Hebrew: הדהים (hidhím)
• Hungarian: meglep (hu), megdöbbent (hu)
• Ido: astonar (io), surprizegar (io)
• Indonesian: mengesima
• Italian: sorprendere (it), stupire (it)
• Japanese: 驚かす (ja) (おどろかす, odorokasu)
• Macedonian: за́чуди (záčudi), вчудо́види (včudóvidi)
• Māori: whakaohomauri, whakaohorere
• Norman: êtonner
• Polish: zdumiewać (pl) impf, zdumieć (pl) pf
• Portuguese: surpreender (pt), pasmar (pt)
• Russian: удивля́ть (ru) impf (udivljátʹ), удиви́ть (ru) pf (udivítʹ), изумля́ть (ru) impf (izumljátʹ), изуми́ть (ru) pf (izumítʹ)
• Spanish: asombrar (es), sorprender (es), pasmar (es), anonadar (es)
• Swedish: förvåna (sv), förbluffa (sv)
• Ukrainian: дивувати (dyvuvaty), вражати (vražaty)
• Yiddish: פֿאַרגאַפֿן (fargafn)