on a wonder
English
editPrepositional phrase
edit- (US, colloquial) Bewildered, perplexed.
- 1836, John Mason Peck, letter to college treasurer Dr. Haskell, cited in Austen Kennedy de Blois, The Pioneer School, New York: Fleming H. Revell, Chapter 4, p. 70,[1]
- I have taken responsibility in this matter and made a bargain, in which I doubt not every trustee will concur. As I like to put you all on a wonder I will not be very particular now—but only observe that Divine Providence has already more than answered our expectations.
- 1907, United States Senate, Hearings before the Committee on Military Affairs concerning the Affray at Brownsville, Texas, on the night of August 13 and 14, 1906, Washington: Government Printing Office, p. 406,[2]
- Q. Have you ever heard of any conspiracy, or any agreement among the men, to not tell about it?—A. No, Sir
- Q. Or to hide knowledge of it?—A. No, sir. The most that I have heard among the men, everybody was on a wonder as to who it was that did do it, did do the shooting.
- 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 5, in Their Eyes Were Watching God[3], University of Illinois Press, published 1978, page 76:
- It was bad enough for white people, but when one of your own color could be so different it put you on a wonder. It was like seeing your sister turn into a ’gator.
- 1969, Charles Gordone, No Place to Be Somebody[4], London: Samuel French, published 1970, act I, page 17:
- This is me! Johnny Earthquake! I rassle with light’nin, put a cap on thunder! Set every mammy-jammer in the graveyard on a wonder!
- 1993, David Edwards, interviewed in Alan Lomax, The Land Where the Blues Began, New York: Pantheon, p. 402,[5]
- Just continually changing like that, catching different trains, I get one or two thousand miles away from home and I get the blues and it put me on a wonder.
- 1836, John Mason Peck, letter to college treasurer Dr. Haskell, cited in Austen Kennedy de Blois, The Pioneer School, New York: Fleming H. Revell, Chapter 4, p. 70,[1]
Usage notes
editOften used in the phrases put or set (someone) on a wonder (to bewilder / perplex someone).