FLABBERGAST

[Dr. Goodword]

• flabbergast •

Pronunciation: flæ-bêr-gæst • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: (Slang) To astonish and confound someone to the point that they do not know how to react.

Notes: Unexpected confusion seems to be a common state of human beings for English has such a plethora of words referring to it: surprise, amaze, and astonish, indicate disbelief of something unexpected suddenly happening. Astound, bewilder, dumbfound and today's Good Word imply a confusion as a result of the unexpected. Today's adjective has a noun, flabbergastation, the act of flabbergasting or state of being flabbergasted—couldn't it also be the place to get a fill-up of astonishment? Maybe not.

In Play: Today's Good Word is a whimsical contrivance used in light, colloquial situations: "The price of gas this summer (2006) flabbergasted many Americans." Indeed, it would have been an excellent time to have used the noun of today's Good Word: flabbergastation. It is a poor reflection on our political system that few of us were flabbergasted to hear about the Jack Abramoff bribery scandal among our national legislators.

Word History: Today's word seems to be another of those lexical playthings that can be laid at the feet of the Americans. However, it first saw the light of publication in England in 1772 as a new piece of fashionable slang, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Its exact origin is unknown, though it is plausibly a nonce word contrived of flap or flabby plus aghast.

[Perry]

The etymology of flabbergast isn't all that important. It is one of the words whose meaning is instantly understood.

I do use fabbergasted from time to time. However, being a lifetime PG Wodehouse fan, I am more likely to remark that, "I checked my mind. It was boggling."