Adjective: bonzer
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
Perifrastic
| Comparative | more bonzer |
| Superlative | most bonzer |
Sample Sentences
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To see their faces brighten and to hear their 'Thanks Cobber, that was bonzer!' was a joy [1915, Young Men's Christian Associations. International Committee, For the millions of men now under arms, volume 2:]
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To all the earth she gives the soft glad-eye;
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She picks no fav′rits in this world o′ men;
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She peeps in nooks, where ′appy lovers sigh,
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To make their joy more bonzer still; an′ then,
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O′er Spadger′s Lane she waves a podgy ′and,
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An′ turns the scowlin′ slums to Fairyland. [1916, C. J. Dennis, "In Spadger′s Lane", in The Moods of Ginger Mick, 2009, Sydney University Press, page 36]
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‘By jings, it’s bonzer fun; better’n motor-cars any day.’ [1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 24:]
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You’ll make the bonzerest couple ever seen this side the Tropic. [1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter XIII, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 220:]
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By cripes, you couldn′t have a more bonzer place for doing the thing in style with girls. [1945, Douglas Stewart, editor, Coast to Coast: Australian Stories 1945, page 51:]
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Inside sat one of the most bonzer sights she′d ever seen. [1991, Noel Virtue, Always the Islands of Memory, page 148:]
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The sadness about his father left his face, and he smiled. He seemed pleased to have something positive to do. / 'That's bonzer, Annie. Thanks' he said. 'You're a good sort. And as for Ches, well, he's real bonzer too.' [2006, Philippa Todd, Dangerous Dating, page 110:]
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If playin' hero is so bonzer, what're you doin' in this job? Y'oughta be workin' for one o' those scandal rags, or with a crowd o' do-gooders, or for some investigation outfit or somethin'. [2007, Eric Stone, The Living Room of the Dead, page 252:]
Adjectives inflected like bonzer
priest-ridden,
unreposed,
evadible,
dissentious,
dissentient,
unforesighted,
egocentrical,
unephemeral,
unennobling,
mensuralist,
flocculent,
unseductive,
whoopsy,
whooshy,
surrogate,
Nicodian,
unrepaired,
prismatoidal,
renorenal,
unseducible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
Etymology
1. Entered use 1890s, origin unknown.
2. In 2020 James Lambert reviewed previous theories, and supports derivation from:
3. * boncer (“large marble”) < bouncer (“something prodigiously large”)
4. Lambert also notes as not supported by evidence:
5. * bonanza
6. * French bon (“good”)
7. * "more fanciful" suggestions:
8. ** born star
9. ** Japanese 万歳 (banzai, “long live..., huzzah, hurrah”)
10. ** bonnie See: French Adjectives '
bon'.