amaze
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈmeɪz/
rhymes: -eɪz
Forms: form: amazes
Etymology: The verb is derived from Middle English *amasen, *amase (“to bewilder, perplex”) (attested chiefly in the past participle form, and thus often difficult to distinguish from amased (adjective)), from Old English āmasian (“to confuse, astonish”), from ā- (perfective prefix) + *masian (“to confound, confuse, perplex; to amaze”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meh₂- (“to beckon, signal”)). The English word is analysable as a- (intensifying prefix) + maze (“(archaic) to astonish, amaze, bewilder; to daze, stupefy”).
The noun is derived from Late Middle English amase, from the verb: see above.
Senses: examples: text: All in amaze he ſuddenly vp ſtart / VVith ſvvord in hand, and vvith the old man vvent; […]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 6, page 20:
text: His faces ovvn margent did coate ſuch amazes, / That all eyes ſavv his eyes inchaunted vvith gazes.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: VVhy, I am all in Amaze: I muſt ſit dovvn.
ref: 1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXIV”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], 3rd edition, volume I, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 64:
text: Presently, however, as we stood in amaze, gazing at the marvellous sight, and wondering whence the rosy radiance flowed, a dread and beautiful thing happened.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “The Spirit of Life”, in She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC, page 287:
text: Shattuck looked at him in amaze. "Why, of course and welcome. What do you mean?" His tone was surprised and wounded, but pacific.
ref: 1891, Charles Egbert Craddock [pseudonym; Mary Noailles Murfree], chapter VIII, in In the “Stranger People’s” Country […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 175:
text: While the world did gaze, in deep amaze, at those fearless men but few. Who bore the fight that freedom's light might shine through the foggy dew.
ref: c. 1919, “The Foggy Dew” (track 3), in The Long Black Veil, performed by The Chieftains and Sinéad O'Connor, published 1995:
text: She took the proffered cheque and stared at it with puzzled amaze, dazed by her own behaviour.
ref: 1985, Lawrence Durrell, “Quinx”, in The Avignon Quintet: Monsieur, Livia, Constance, Sebastian, Quinx, London: Faber and Faber, published 2004, →ISBN, page 1361:
qualifier: except poetic
glosses: Amazement, astonishment; (countable) an instance of this.
examples: text: [T]he whole rout was in amaze; his Lordſhip turned all manner of colours, my Lady fell into a ſwoon; […]
ref: 1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], “The Family still Resolve to Hold Up Their Heads”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume I, Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 103:
text: He passed over Dor-nu-Fauglith like a wind amid the dust, and all that beheld his onset fled in amaze, thinking Oromë himself was come: for a great madness of rage was upon him, so that his eyes shone like the eyes of the Valar.
ref: a. 1974 (date written), J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “Quenta Silmarillion: The History of the Silmarils. Chapter XVIII. Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin.”, in Christopher Tolkien, editor, The Silmarillion, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, published 15 September 1977, →ISBN, page 153:
synonyms: word: amazement
glosses: Fear, terror.
examples: text: [T]he panicles or thin skins [of a horse] vvhich cleauing to the bones, doe couer the vvhole braine, are ſubiect to headache, mygram [migrane], dizineſſe, and amazes; […]
ref: 1610, Gervase Markham, “Of the Diseases in the Head”, in Markhams Maister-peece. Or, What doth a Horse-man Lacke. Containing All Possible Knowledge whatsoeuer which doth Belong to any Smith, Farrier, or Horse-leech, Touching the Curing of All Manner of Diseases or Sorrances in Horses; […], London: […] Nicholas Okes, and are to be sold by Arthur Iohnson, […], →OCLC, 1st book (Containing All Cures Physicall, […]), page 57:
synonyms: amazement
glosses: Stupefaction of the mind; bewilderment; (countable) an instance of this.
Derived terms: amazeful