nonplus
To bewilder or perplex (someone); to confound, to flummox.
Noun
- A state of bewilderment or perplexity.
- [A]ltering Vaudemont, to Vallemontanus, and metamorphoſing them, by ſuting them to the Græcian or Latin tongue, we know not what to make of them, and are often at a non-plus. - 1603, Michel de Montaigne, “Of Names”, in...
- Being now made much abler to make their queries, of the ſecrets of that myſtery, by how much their often failings, had put them to often ſtops and nonpluſſes in the work. - 1657, Richard Ligon, A True & Exact History of...
- And if both of them are at a perfect Non-plus, and Baffle to all Humane Underſtanding; is it poſſible for Natural Reaſon to comprehend what the Heart of Man cannot conceive? - 1715, Robert South, “A Discourse Concerning...
Origin
The noun is derived from Latin nōn plūs (“no further, no more”), from nōn (“not”) + plūs (“additionally, more; further”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)). The verb is derived from the noun.
Forms
Derived
Verb
- To bewilder or perplex (someone); to confound, to flummox.
- You couldn’t have told it from my manner, but I was feeling more than a bit nonplussed. The spectacle before me was enough to nonplus anyone. - 1934 October 5, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter II, in Right Ho,...
Forms
nonplusses nonpluses nonplussing nonplusing nonplussed nonplused non-plus
Derived
nonplusation nonplusment nonplussation nonplussed nonplusser nonplussing