Astonish

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Dr. Goodword
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Astonish

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Nov 28, 2021 7:16 pm

• astonish •


Pronunciation: ê-stah-nish • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: To suddenly surprise or even shock with something amazing, to astound, to startle mightily.

Notes: This word is part French (the stem) and part English (the ending), which explains why we have two nouns for this word, one native present participle (astonishing), one French (astonishment). The present participle serves as the adjective, too.

In Play: Astonishment may be delightful: "The villagers of Tullymore were astonished to find out how much money the winning Lotto ticket was worth." It may also be scary: "TV viewers were astonished to see white supremacists trying to take over the US Congress on January 6, 2021."

Word History: Middle English apparently plucked Old French estoner "to stun, shock, astonish" and converted it to astone, astun, and astony—they couldn't agree on how to spell it. French inherited its word from the presumable Vulgar Latin verb extonare, comprising classical Latin ex- "(out) from" + tonare "to thunder". Latin received this verb from PIE (s)tenê-/(s)tonê "to thunder, roar, moan", source also of English Thursday, from Old English thunor "thunder". In German and Dutch it emerged as Donner and donder "thunder", respectively. In Persian we find tondar, in Irish torann, and in Welsh taran "thunder". The PIE word also went into the making of tornado, borrowed from Spanish tornado "thunderstorm, hurricane" from tronar "to thunder". The similar verb tornar "to turn" is probably responsible for the RO metathesis. (Let's all now thank Anna Jung for reminding us of the fascination to be found in today's Good Word.)
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David Myer
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Re: Astonish

Postby David Myer » Sat Dec 04, 2021 7:23 am

I wonder why the wordsmiths of the time used thunder rather than lightning to build the word astonish? The Lightning comes first and is therefore a bigger surprise than the inevitable subsequent thunder.

bnjtokyo
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Re: Astonish

Postby bnjtokyo » Sat Dec 04, 2021 10:29 am

Actually, I believe it is fairly common for the thunder to arrive without the lighting having been seen. If the observer is facing the wrong direction or the lightening is hidden by natural or man-made objects, the observer may be suddenly startled by the thunderclap. And may I add that based on personal experience, when the lighting flash the thunderclap seem to arrive simultaneously, the thunderclap is loud, startling and extremely frightening.

bbeeton
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Re: Astonish

Postby bbeeton » Sat Dec 04, 2021 11:25 am

bnjtokyo -- another personal experience, or rather two.

At a campground, a lightning flash and simultaneous thunderclap were clearly placed just beyond a line of trees. The thunder continued for several seconds, rising in a path that clearly resembled a corkscrew.

More recently, at home in the city, a similarly simultaneous flash and clap were followed in just a few minutes by the wail of sirens. I wasn't tempted to venture out in the rain to investigate.

And, oh, a third. In central Florida, in the courtyard of a many-story hotel, just as I happened to look up, lightning struck an antenna on the corner of the roof. Again, simultaneous flash and sound.

Maybe I should take up residence in a cave.

Philip Hudson
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Re: Astonish

Postby Philip Hudson » Sat Dec 04, 2021 7:41 pm

Perhaps so bbeeton. I have had the experience of being struck by lightning. I was getting ready to leave for my first job after graduation with a BS from a university. I had rented a U-Haul trailer and was attaching it to my car. Suddenly I found myself lying under the trailer.
I neither saw the lightning nor did I hear it. My dear wife, we were newlyweds, heard and witnessed it. I survived.

Closer to the topic of "astonish" I am put in mind of the way it is said here in the hinterlands. If you want to express your astonishment, you should say, "Well, I'm plumb stonnied." No exclamation mark needed. Hinterlanders are never actually astonished. An exclamation takes too much effort to actually make.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

bnjtokyo
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Re: Astonish

Postby bnjtokyo » Sun Dec 05, 2021 12:14 am

bbeeton, sheltering in a cave during a lightning storm is not advised. Taking shelter in cave on Bugaboo Spire (British Columbia) in 1948 led to two fatalities. I refer you to "Lightning and the Mountain" by J.R. Wilson and Robin Hansen, Sierra Club Bulletin, V. 34, No. 6, June 1949. (I once found a copy on line, but could not do so today so I am unable to provide a link. Perhaps you can find a copy in a library near you.) In their analysis of this accident, they suggested that the ground currents from the lightning strike higher on the mountain traveled near the surface and found that the path of least resistance was through the mountaineers sheltering in the cave rather than around the cave entrance or behind the cave.

To which I will add that Dr Wilson's (PhD, physics, 1940 or thereabouts) analysis of the Bugaboo accident did not prepare him for the lightning storm we experienced high on the NW face of Half Dome in Yosemite in about 1970. He, his son and I were all tied in on a ledge about 40cm wide during an afternoon thunderstorm. Dr Wilson and his son were sitting with their backs against the face while I was sitting on a pile of rope at the front edge of the ledge with my lower legs and feet dangling over the outer edge (as one would sit on a stool or high chair). I had no contact with the face behind us other than the rope and anchor to which I was belayed. Lightning struck the summit and the ground currents "bit" Dr Wilson and his son, causing them to involuntarily jump while I felt nothing. (As I said, we were all tied in on short anchors.). We were lucky.

David Myer
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Re: Astonish

Postby David Myer » Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:35 pm

Extraordinary stories, bnj, bbeeton and Philip.

Do you bear the scars of your strike, Philip? Did you need treatment at the time? How terrifying for your new wife. Certainly 'astonishing'.

And Barbara, your near misses, suggest you might be a dangerous travelling companion. I think I will stay in Australia.

As for bnj's experience "high on the face of Half Dome"... Did your experience end your mountaineering exploits? Going through an experience like that would have petrified me. How you managed to get down again is beyond me - unless you were rescued?

bnjtokyo
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Re: Astonish

Postby bnjtokyo » Sun Dec 05, 2021 11:54 pm

To answer your questions,
There is a hiking/tourist route to the top of Half Dome used by hundreds of people every day from late spring to mid-autumn, so we came down using that route. And no, I continued to climb until I broke a femur a couple of years ago and had to have the femur head replaced with titanium (to match the frame of my bike). That made walking more than about 5 km rather painful. It also forcing me to stop skiing (fear of a dislocation). But riding is fine; cranking out the kms is painless, at least in the hip joint.

Philip Hudson
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Re: Astonish

Postby Philip Hudson » Mon Dec 06, 2021 1:45 pm

My encounter with lightning left me with a ringing in the ears and a general soreness of the body. I recovered quickly. I am not usually a mountain climber. However, when my brother worked at the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, he challenged me to climb From Fort Davis up to the observatory. We experienced a thunderstorm on the way up and I feared for my life. But I was spared to live another day.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.


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