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Origin and history of marvelous

marvelous(adj.)

c. 1300, merveillous, "causing wonder, of wonderful appearance or quality," from Old French merveillos "marvelous, wonderful" (Modern French merveilleux), from merveille (see marvel (n.)). Weakened sense of "splendid, very nice" is by 1924. The adverbial sense of "wonderfully, surprisingly" (early 14c.) is archaic or obsolete. Related: Marvelously; marvelousness.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to marvelous

marvel(n.)

c. 1300, merivelle, "a miracle; a thing, act, or event which causes astonishment," also "wonderful story or legend," from Old French merveille "a wonder, surprise, miracle," from Vulgar Latin *miribilia (source also of Spanish maravilla, Portuguese maravilha, Italian maraviglia), altered from Latin mirabilia "wonderful things," from noun use of neuter plural of mirabilis "wonderful, marvelous, extraordinary; strange, singular," from mirari "to wonder at," from mirus "wonderful" (see smile (v.)). A neuter plural treated in Vulgar Latin as a feminine singular. Related: Marvels. The Marvel comics brand dates to 1961.

marvellous(adj.)

see marvelous.

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    tall
    "having a relatively great stature, high in proportion to breadth," 1520s, originally of persons; by 1540s of things, probably from otherwise obsolete Middle English tal "handsome, good-looking;" also "valiant," from Old English getæl "prompt, active," from Germanic *(ge)-tala- (
    fantastic
    late 14c., "existing only in imagination, produced by (mental) fantasy," from Old French fantastique (14c.), from Medieval Latin fantasticus, from Late Latin phantasticus "imaginary," from Greek phantastikos "able to imagine," from phantazein "make visible" (middle voice phantaze
    grand
    late 14c., grant "large, big" (early 12c. in surnames), from Anglo-French graunt and directly from Old French grant, grand (10c., Modern French grand) "large, tall; grown-up; great, powerful, important; strict, severe; extensive; numerous," from Latin grandis "big, great; full, a
    prodigious
    ominous, portentous" (a sense now obsolete), from French prodigieux and directly from Latin prodigiosus "strange, wonderful, marvelous...
    wonder
    Old English wundor "marvelous thing, miracle, object of astonishment," from Proto-Germanic *wundran (source also of Old Saxon...
    Balaam
    In old newspaper jargon Balaam came to be used for paragraphs regarding marvelous or incredible events, used to fill out...
    romantic
    1650s, "of the nature of a literary romance, partaking of the heroic or marvelous," from French romantique "pertaining to...
    terrific
    1660s, "frightening," from Latin terrificus "causing terror or fear, frightful," from terrere "fill with fear" (see terrible) + combining form of facere "to make" (from PIE root *dhe- "to set, put"). Weakened sensed of "very great, severe" (as in terrific headache) appeared 1809;
    tremendous
    1630s, "awful, dreadful, terrible," from Latin tremendus "fearful, to be dreaded, terrible," literally "to be trembled at," gerundive form of tremere "to tremble" (see tremble (v.)). Hyperbolic or intensive sense of "extraordinarily great or good, immense" is attested from 1812,
    dogma
    "a settled opinion, a principle held as being firmly established," c. 1600 (in plural dogmata), from Latin dogma "philosophical tenet," from Greek dogma (genitive dogmatos) "opinion, tenet," literally "that which one thinks is true," from dokein "to seem good, think" (from PIE ro

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