Obs. Forms: see prec. [repr. OE. wundor WONDER sb. in compounds, as wundorcræft marvelous skill or power, wundordǽd miracle, wundortácen wondrous sign, miracle, prodigy (so OS. wundarquâla extreme torment, OHG. wuntarsiht ‘spectaculum,’ MHG., G. wundertat miracle, ON. undrsjón spectacle, etc.; see also WONDER THING); cf. the similar origin of MAIN a., and see WONDERS a.] Wonderful, wondrous, marvelous. On or in (a) wonder wise, wonderfully (cf. MLG. wunderwîs(e adv.). See also WONDER THING, WONDER-WORK.
a. 1175. Cott. Hom., 235. He cweð a wunder word to þar sawle bi þa witie ysaiam.
c. 1205. Lay., 1147. Heo dude wnder craftes.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 6919. Þat folc com þikke amorwe to se þis wonder dede. Ibid., 8593. Þe sixte ȝer þer com also a wel wonder cas.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 1873. So wonder a wilde best þat weldes no mynde.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., A. 1095. So sodanly on a wonder wyse, I was war of a prosessyoun.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, I. 419. Allas what is þis wonder maladye.
c. 1382. Pol. Poems (Rolls), I. 250. This warnynges beoth wonder and feole.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. II. 126. In wonderwyse holy wryt tellith how þei fullen.
a. 1400. Hymns Virg. (1895), 46. Wiyn of watir he makiþ blyue, And dooþ manye a wondir dede.
1425. Engl. Conq. Irel., 130. About that tyme, befel a wonder aduentur yn a wodde of Myth.
c. 1425. Seven Sag. (P.), 2643. Thou schalt telle me of that cas; Hyt hys the wounderest that ever I herde.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, XVII. i. 689. He passed by a Castel where was a wonder turnement.
c. 1529. Skelton, E. Rummyng, 73. With clothes vpon her hed … Wrythen in wonder wyse, After the Sarasyns gyse.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Chron. xxxii. 24. And he prayed vnto the Lorde, which made him promes, and gaue him a wonder-token.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, iv. 58. And, wonder Vandermast, welcome to me.
