Word of the Day

Monday, August 18, 2003

wunderkind

\VOON-duhr-kint\ , noun;

plural wunderkinder \-kin-duhr\

A child prodigy.

One who achieves great success or acclaim at an early age.

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Quotes:

It was even written that, at 20, his best days were behind him. He had gone from a wunderkind to an object of sympathy, a hero struggling not to be forgotten.

-- "Owen shines like a beacon amid the wrecks", Times (London), May 29, 2000

In the mid-thirties, he became the youngest and best state director of FDR's National Youth Administration, a Texas wunderkind who at age twenty-eight beat several better known opponents for a south-central Texas congressional seat.

-- Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant

Origin:

Wunderkind comes from German, from Wunder, "wonder" + Kind, child.