marvel
Verbmarvels
Noun pluralmarvels
Formsmarvels
Pluralmarvels
- 1To be struck with amazement at something, feeling deep wonder or admiration.
Engineers still marvel at how the pyramids were raised without modern machines.
The crowd could only stand and marvel as the rocket climbed into the clouds.
Note
The spelling of its forms splits by country: American English keeps one l (marveled, marveling), British English doubles it (marvelled, marvelling), while marvel and marvels are the same everywhere. The King James Bible of 1611 already uses the verb in a plain command, marueile not, with u where we now write v.
- 2Something that causes wonder or astonishment, such as an extraordinary feat, person, or sign.
The tiny pocket watch, with its hundreds of moving parts, is a marvel of craftsmanship.
Divers come from around the world to see the marvels of the reef.
Similarwonder, miracle, phenomenon, masterpiece
Note
Since about 1300 English has used this word for a wonder: it came through Old French merveille from Latin mīrābilia, "wonderful things", built on mīror, "I wonder at", and mirabilia is the same Latin word taken in directly. In praise it can be pinned to one respect, so a film is a marvel on a technical level and a watch a marvel of craftsmanship.
- 3A feeling of wonder or astonishment.
He shook his head in marvel at how quickly the old town had changed.
The first sight of the canyon left the travelers speechless with marvel.
Note
Here the word names the feeling, not the thing that causes it, so it takes no article, as wonder does. Walter Scott's The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805) can still say that use lessens marvel. Present-day writers reach for wonder or astonishment instead, and marvel used this way sounds deliberately old.
Less common meanings
- 4To regard something with wonder.
Note
Older English let the verb take its object directly: to marvel a thing was to wonder at it. That construction is obsolete, and the living verb needs at before its object, as in marveling at a view or at how fast a town has changed.
- 5To cause someone to wonder or be surprised, usually with it as the subject.
15th century, Anonymous, Richard the Redeless But much now me marvelleth.
Note
An impersonal construction turned the roles around: the surprise was the subject and the person surprised was the object. Richard the Redeless, from the 15th century, has much now me marvelleth, roughly "it surprises me greatly now". The pattern is obsolete; present-day English makes the person the subject, someone who marvels at the cause.
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Origin
First attested from 1300, from Middle English merveile, from Old French merveille (“a wonder”), from Vulgar Latin *miribilia, from Latin mīrābilia (“wonderful things”), the neuter plural of mīrābilis (“strange, wonderful”). That comes from mīror (“I wonder at”), from mīrus (“wonderful”); marvel is a doublet of mirabilia.