the.com/amazement
the brief blackout where your jaw forgets it's attached to your face
means A state of overwhelming wonder or astonishment, the feeling of being utterly stunned by something surprising.
from From 'amaze,' which traces back to Old English 'āmasian' — to bewilder or stun, perhaps to render someone helpless. The 'maze' lurking inside is no accident: it's the same root, the original sense being to be confounded as if lost in a labyrinth, dazed and unsure which way is out. The '-ment' suffix, borrowed from French and ultimately Latin, simply turns the verb into the noun for the state of being so dumbfounded.
- word origin
- from 'amaze,' once meaning stunned into a maze
- jaw drop
- a real reflex, briefly silencing speech
- dopamine hit
- surprise spikes reward chemicals more than expected reward does
- learning fuel
- awe makes the brain encode memories harder
- shrinks ego
- wonder reliably lowers self-importance in studies
niagara falls — 188 feet of cascading water that has astonished 30 million visitors annually since the 1800s
taj mahal — shah jahan's marble mausoleum completed in 1653 that leaves 7-8 million annual visitors speechless