nine-day wonder

noun
/ˌnaɪn‿deɪ ˈwʌndə/UK/ˌnaɪn‿deɪ ˈwʌndɚ/US

Etymology

From nine + day + wonder (“something that causes amazement or awe”). References to a period of nine days or nights to describe the length of a short-lived fad date from as early as the 14th century; see, for instance, Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1380s) by the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s – 1400; spelling modernized): “Ek [besides] wonder last but nine days never in town”.

  1. inherited from *wundrōną
  2. inherited from wundrian
  3. inherited from wondren
  4. inherited from *wundrą
  5. inherited from *wundr
  6. inherited from wundor
  7. inherited from wonder
  8. compounded as nine-day wonder — “nine + day + wonder

Definitions

  1. Something that generates interest for a limited time and is then abandoned.

    • […] I am content this vvinter to haue my doings read for a toye, that in ſommer they may be ready for traſh. It is not ſtraunge vvhen as the greateſt vvonder laſteth but nyne dayes, that a nevve vvorke ſhould not endure but three monethes.
    • This that I did vvas for a policie, / To ſmooth and keepe the murther ſecret, / VVhich at a nine daies vvonder being ore-blovvne, / My gentle ſiſter vvill I novv inlarge.
    • I vvas ſeuen of the nine daies out of the vvonder, before you came:[…]

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for nine-day wonder. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA