astonisher
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: astonishers
Etymology: From astonish + -er.
Senses: examples: text: (colloquial)
text: […] the railroad between Leghorn and Pisa […] has already begun to astonish Italy with a precedent of punctuality, order, plain dealing, and improvement—the most dangerous and heretical astonisher of all.
ref: 1846, Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy, London: […] Bradbury & Evans, […], →OCLC, page 156:
text: 1858, Abraham Lincoln, debate with Stephen A. Douglas on 10 July, 1858 in Speeches and Letters of Abraham Lincoln, 1832-1865, London: J.M. Dent and New York: Dutton, 1907, p. 88,
It [this court decision] is the first of its kind; it is an astonisher in legal history; it is a new wonder of the world;
text: He [the king pretending to be a peasant] was always frightening me, always breaking out with fresh astonishers, in new and unexpected places.
ref: 1889, Mark Twain, chapter 27, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, New York: Charles L. Webster, page 350:
text: Well, if life were tragedy, it still was life, the ultimate astonisher.
ref: 1943, Dorothy Richardson, “Data for a Spanish Publisher”, in Journey to Paradise, London: Virago, published 1989, page 139:
synonyms: astonishment
marvel
surprise
wonder
shocker
stunner
glosses: Something that astonishes; an astonishing thing or event.
examples: text: […] God, before whom all Nations are as nothing, thou Astonisher of all Flesh, thou art even too Wonderful for me,
ref: 1675, William Bayly, “The Life of Enoch again Revived”, in A Collection of the Several Wrightings of […] William Bayly, published 1676, page 146:
text: […] when they [the guides for tourists] excite an exclamation of wonder, they never sympathise with it, but treat it as a matter of course that you should be the astonished, and they the astonishers.
ref: 1843, Mr. & Mrs. S. C. Hall, Ireland: Its Scenery, Character, &c., London: Jeremiah How, Volume 3, p. 155, footnote:
text: 1987, Gary Jennings, Spangle, New York: Atheneum, “France,” Chapter 8, p. 867,
The equestrian director introduced her with almost Florian-florid superlatives-the wonder of her time, the astonisher of even the most jaded connaisseurs du cirque, and so on and so on-but still keeping a mystery Mademoiselle Mystère’s specialty.
glosses: Someone who astonishes.
examples: 1874, The American Observer, New Series, Volume 1, “Rejoinder,” p. 525,
“ […] Nothing whatever” ! (the italics are “S. S. C.’s,” the “astonisher” is mine.)
1947, Stewart Holbrook, The Story of American Railroads, American Legacy Press, 1981, Chapter 39, p. 443,
More often than not these prophets […] belong to the oh-the-wonder-of-it-all school, who point to the sky as the new and sole artery of travel and transportation and marvel, in complete awe—which they indicate by running over with astonishers!—at the thought of monstrous planes hauling the freight and passengers of the nation, even of the world.
1984, Richard Hauer Costa, “The Grisly Graphics of Malcolm Lowry” in Gordon Bowker and Paul Tiessen (eds.), Proceedings of the London Conference on Malcolm Lowry, Goldsmith’s College, University of London and The Malcolm Lowry Review, Wilfrid Laurier University, p. 100,
An ad for a boxing match can symbolize the uncommunicable, with its curious shape-of-the-type configurations—¡BOX!, with the ‘astonisher’ written upside down before the word and right side up after.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
media
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
printing
publishing
sciences
typography
glosses: An exclamation mark, the punctuation mark “!”.
topics: journalism
media
publishing
typography
synonyms: kicker
overline
read-in
whiplash
glosses: A short line of smaller type above (or sometimes below) the main headline of an article, usually placed flush-left.
examples: text: He reveled in socking the reader right in the eye with an “astonisher.”
ref: 1969, Shandy Hill, chapter 17, in Dear Sir: You Cur, Philadelphia: Whitmore Publishing, page 119:
topics: journalism
media
synonyms: cartridge lead
punch lead
shocker lead
glosses: A headline or lead (introductory paragraph) designed to capture attention through a surprising statement.