Word of the DayFriday, January 27, 2006
wunderkind
\VOON-duhr-kint\ , noun:1.
A child prodigy.
2.
One who achieves great success or acclaim at an early age.
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.
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