Astoned

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Archaic past form of astonish, describing someone left stunned or overwhelmed with amazement
2. An old-fashioned way of saying someone was struck dumb with wonder or sudden shock
3. Used in older English to describe a person who has been thoroughly amazed or bewildered

Etymology: "Astoned" is the past tense and past participle of "astone," a verb meaning to leave someone utterly amazed. The verb is built from the prefix "a-" (an old intensifier, as in "aflame" or "ashamed") and "stone," so its literal sense is to turn someone to stone, or to strike them so still that they seem petrified. The image of a person frozen by shock is older than the word itself, and "astone" carries that picture in its very form. The word belongs to a family of English verbs that the "a-" prefix made from nouns and adjectives. Its meaning was built on that concrete image of petrification rather than on any idea of wonder, which is why the verb sounds more dramatic than "amaze" or "astonish" when it is used. Its past forms, "astoned," appear wherever the verb is used in the past tense, most often in older or literary English.