thunderstruck

From thunder +‎ struck. Compare synonymous and cognate Latin attonitus. Also compare typologically Ancient Greek ἐμβρόντητος (embróntētos) (< βροντή (brontḗ)) (whence Greek εμβρόντητος (emvróntitos)); Czech ohromený (< ohromit), Bulgarian като ударен от гръм (kato udaren ot grǎm), Russian как гро́мом поражённый (kak grómom poražónnyj) (akin to гром (grom)). See also German wie vom Donner gerührt.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈθʌn.də.stɹʌk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈθʌn.dɚ.stɹʌk/

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thunderstruck (comparative more thunderstruck, superlative most thunderstruck)

1. Astonished, amazed or so suddenly surprised as to be unable to speak.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. , London: ">…] , and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 856-858:

     The overthrown he rais’d, and as a Heard
     Of Goats or timerous flock together throngd
     Drove them before him Thunder-struck,

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, , →OCLC, part I, page 198:

     Therefore he whacked the old nigger mercilessly, while a big crowd of his people watched him, thunderstruck, till some man, - I was told the chief's son, - in desperation at hearing the old chap yell, made a tentative jab with a spear at the white man - and of course it went quite easy between the shoulder-blades.

   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 43:

     Tarzan was thunderstruck, but in an instant he realized a part of the truth.

   • 1916, G. K. Chesterton, chapter IX, in The Crimes of England:

     And for days Europe and the great powers were thunderstruck, again and yet again, by the news of Turkish forts falling, Turkish cohorts collapsing, the unconquerable Crescent going down in blood.

   • 1927-29 — Mohandas Gandhi, An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth, Part V, The Fast, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai

     'Unless the strikers rally,' I declared to the meeting, 'and continue the strike till a settlement is reached, or till they leave the mills altogether, I will not touch any food.' The labourers were thunderstruck.

• (astonished): amazed, astonished, astounded, awed, overawed, overwhelmed, speechless, stupefied, surprised

• thunderstrike
• thunderstriking