on a wonder

on a wonder

1. (US, colloquial) Bewildered, perplexed.
   • 1836, John Mason Peck, letter to college treasurer Dr. Haskell, cited in Austen Kennedy de Blois, The Pioneer School, New York: Fleming H. Revell, Chapter 4, p. 70,

     I have taken responsibility in this matter and made a bargain, in which I doubt not every trustee will concur. As I like to put you all on a wonder I will not be very particular now—but only observe that Divine Providence has already more than answered our expectations.

   • 1907, United States Senate, Hearings before the Committee on Military Affairs concerning the Affray at Brownsville, Texas, on the night of August 13 and 14, 1906, Washington: Government Printing Office, p. 406,

     Q. Have you ever heard of any conspiracy, or any agreement among the men, to not tell about it?—A. No, Sir

     Q. Or to hide knowledge of it?—A. No, sir. The most that I have heard among the men, everybody was on a wonder as to who it was that did do it, did do the shooting.

   • 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, chapter 5, in Their Eyes Were Watching God‎, University of Illinois Press, published 1978, page 76:

     It was bad enough for white people, but when one of your own color could be so different it put you on a wonder. It was like seeing your sister turn into a ’gator.

   • 1969, Charles Gordone, No Place to Be Somebody‎, London: Samuel French, published 1970, act I, page 17:

     This is me! Johnny Earthquake! I rassle with light’nin, put a cap on thunder! Set every mammy-jammer in the graveyard on a wonder!

   • 1993, David Edwards, interviewed in Alan Lomax, The Land Where the Blues Began, New York: Pantheon, p. 402,

     Just continually changing like that, catching different trains, I get one or two thousand miles away from home and I get the blues and it put me on a wonder.

Often used in the phrases put or set (someone) on a wonder (to bewilder / perplex someone).