Other forms: amazing, amazed, amazes
To amaze somebody is to fill them with sudden wonder. Not merely surprise — something closer to disbelief.
It is stronger than surprise and slightly less formal than astonish. The passive is very common, as in I was amazed at how quickly it went. The adjective amazing has been so worn down by everyday enthusiasm that it now often means merely quite good, which is a shame given the strength of the verb. The noun amazement usually appears in to my amazement or in wide-eyed amazement.
1verbamazeTo fill someone with wonder or surprise.
“It amazes me that nobody noticed.”
To amaze was to bewilder. Old English āmasian meant to confuse or to stupefy, and Middle English amased meant perplexed, so amazement was disorientation before it was delight.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)meh₂- — to beckon, signal
Old English
āmasian — to confuse, astonish
Middle English
amased — to bewilder, perplex
English, today
amaze
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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA