Words We Use: wonderful

The word wonderful has many shades of meaning in English dialects. In Yorkshire it is used of sick or feeble persons. The English Dialect Dictionary (EDD), quoting the Leeds Mercury Supplement of January,1900, says that "wonderful is applied to any one who does not mend much, but manages to keep up his spirits, or to very old people who cannot do much more than spend their time in a passive way".

The word also means great, large in Scotland, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Berkshire and Sussex; The EDD gives, "There were a wonderful lot of people at the wake," from Lincolnshire. The adverb means very, extremely; remarkably, surprisingly. Robert Burns, in Twa Dogs (1786) has, "Ther're maistly wonderfu' contented." Recorded in Somerset has been, "I shan't be so wonderful long." Hence wonderfully, adverb, very, extremely. 'She was wonderfully pleased to see me,' was recorded in Suffolk.

Wonderment is found as a noun and a verb in Scotland, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, and south in Essex, Wiltshire and Cornwall. It means, of course, astonishment, a cause of wonder. Brierley's Out Of Work, written in Lancashire in the mid-19th-century, has a young man "looking all wonderment at the changed appearance of the young lady". Wiltshire horticulturalist Jefferies, in Amaryllis (1887), wrote: "What caused the most 'wonderment' was the planting of the horse-chestnuts."

Wonderment is also defined as anything strange, unaccustomed, or not understood; matter for talk; a foolish pastime; folly, nonsense; tricks. A Wiltshire correspondent told the EDD that wonderment meant "any occupation that appears fanciful and unpractical to the rustic mind. Thus a boy who had a turn for inventions, drawings, or anything else of a similar nature which lies outside the ordinary routine of a labourer's daily life, would be described as always "aater his oonderments". From the same shire, the EDD was told that the word was used as "a sort of term of reproval for all manner of amusements as distinguished from work." Oh for the good old days!

The verb wondermenting meant to wonder at anything; to waste time on unprofitable occupations; to be dreamy; to play the fool. From Wiltshire the EDD was sent, "Missus wur out, an' the girls come out an' begun a 'oondermentin."

Wondersome is an adjective found in Scotland, Lancashire and Devon. It simply means "wonderful". "A wondersome lucky lass was Mistress Veronica" is found in Crockett's Banner of Blue (1902), set in Galloway. Hence wondersomely, adverb, wonderfuly. "How wondersomely cheap," was recorded in Devon.

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