U.S. colloq. [Sp.; = fair weather, prosperity, f. L. bon-us good.]
1. (See quot. The bonanza mines par excellence were the great silver ones on the Comstock lode. See Sat. Rev., 31 July 1866.)
1827. Phenix Gaz., 12 Nov., 3/1. The Temascaltepec Mine promises yet well, though no actual bonanza has as yet been discovered.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 12. The ‘boss,’ the ‘railroad king,’ and the bonanza Crœsus.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Bonanza, in miners’ phrase, good luck, or a body of rich ore. A mine is in bonanza when it is profitably producing ore.
fig. 1878. R. Taylor, in N. Amer. Rev., CXXVI. 239. If silence be golden, he was a ‘bonanza.’
1883. F. E. Prendergast, in Harper’s Mag., Nov., 940/1. This Oregan company which proved such a bonanza to its stockholders.
2. attrib., as in bonanza farm, a farm that is a ‘mine of wealth’; one on a large scale with all modern scientific appliances; so bonanza farmer.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 79. The bonanza farms of America, where every kind of agricultural process is accomplished by steam.
1884. Lisbon (Dakota) Star, 27 June. One of Ransom county’s bonanza farmers.
