Another Roman Word – Stupendous

Hello,

This week’s word is stupendous (with thanks to the Academy Books Teen Book Club). I assumed I’d already covered this delicious word, but I’ve checked the archives and nope.

Stupendous is another word the Romans gave us and one which the erratic spelling of Tudor times changed. Stupendous arrived in the English language initially as stupendious (causing astonishment) in the mid 1500s but it was the mid 1600s before it lost that i and assumed its current spelling.

A Roman reaction to a stupendous sight

The word came from Late Latin stupendus (to be wondered at) from the verb stupere (be stunned, struck senseless, aghast, astounded, or amazed). Aghast is another great one, must add that to my word list. The basic idea is that you were rendered stupid with the sheer shock of what you had seen or encountered.

The same Latin verb gave rise to the word stupid and it came from a root word, stupe, relating to hitting. There is a rather unkind expression about somebody being hit with the stupid stick, which perhaps is closer to linguistic roots than you might think. The core concept appears to be that if you’re acting stupidly or have found something stupendous then you behave as if you’ve just received a blow to the head.

There are also two derived words – stupendously and stupendousness but neither are much used now.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)