Astone

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. An archaic verb meaning to amaze or stun someone so greatly that they are left speechless with surprise
2. A long-obsolete English verb for astonishing or bewildering a person, leaving them dazed and struck with wonder
3. Used in older English to describe the act of startling or overwhelming someone with shock or amazement

Etymology: "Astone" is an alternative spelling of "astun", a Middle English word meaning to stun or astonish, and it survives in English mainly as the older form of "astonish". The word was inherited from Middle English "astonen", which likely derives from Old French "estoner", "to stun". Its surface appearance suggests a prefix a- attached to "stun", but the real source is the Old French verb, which English adopted and reshaped. The Old French verb "estoner" carried the sense of a sudden blow that leaves someone dazed, as if struck on the head. Its ancestry is tangled: it is connected to the same root that gave English "stun", so the two words are close relatives that came into the language along different routes. That is why "astone" looks like an English word with a prefix, when it is really a borrowed verb that English had absorbed and reworked.