What does the "Wonderful is the word" mean?

Question

Yesterday I read "The Adventure of The Cheap Flat" by A.Christie. There I found such clause:
"No, it's the Knightsbridge one. That's what makes it so wonderful." "Wonderful is the word! It's a blinking miracle. But there must be a
catch somewhere."
What does it mean?
Igor

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Yesterday I read "The Adventure of The Cheap Flat" by A.Christie. There I found such clause: "No, it's the Knightsbridge ... "Wonderful is the word! It's a blinking miracle. But there must be a catch somewhere." What does it mean?[/nq]
The second speaker is agreeing that "wonderful" is the right word to describe it (whatever it might be - you don't say).

It's not common, but it is a standard usage: "XX is the word!", in agreement to somebody else using XX to describe something. It doesn't have to be positive:
- The train journey was appalling.
- Appalling is the word! We were three hours late.

David
==

Usenet · Answer

Agatha Christie:
[nq:2]"No, it's the Knightsbridge one. That's what makes it so wonderful." "Wonderful is the word! ..."[/nq]
"David":
[nq:1]The second speaker is agreeing that "wonderful" is the right word...[/nq]
In other words, the sentence should really have been punctuated

"'Wonderful' is the word! ..."
But in practice, omission of quotation marks is fairly common in this sort of usage; you just have to get used to it.
[nq:1]to describe it (whatever it might be - you don't say).[/nq]
The "cheap flat" of the title, or the whole situation. For reasons which Hercule Poirot discovers during the story, the first speaker had apparently been able to rent the flat at an incredibly low rate.
Mark Brader > "... you're a detective, you like mysteries." Toronto > "I hate mysteries. What I like are solutions." (Email Removed) > Barbara Paul, "The Apostrophe Thief"

My text in this article is in the public domain.

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[nq:1]Agatha Christie: "David":[/nq]
In light of this, "Wonderful is the word!" may have an additional meaning: that the rent is not just excellent (the common meaning of "wonderful") but literally something to wonder at. Something to have doubts about, even.
I don't know whether that's what's going on here, but "X is the word" and its variants can mean that X is more appropriate than its user realized.

Jerry Friedman

Usenet · Answer

Agatha Christie:

"David":

Mark Brader:
[nq:2]The "cheap flat" of the title, or the whole situation. ... able to rent the flat at an incredibly low rate.[/nq]
Jerry Friedman:
[nq:1]In light of this, "Wonderful is the word!" may have an additional meaning: that the rent is not just excellent (the common meaning of "wonderful") but literally something to wonder at. Something to have doubts about, even.[/nq]
But that meaning of "wonderful" is about as obsolete as the sense of "awful" where it means "awe-inspiring".
It is true that the second speaker continued, "There's got to be a catch." But I think it's clear from their manner of speaking that the meaning was that there's got to be a catch because it's so wonderful (excellent).
On the other hand, when I said "incredibly", I did intend a double meaning: it was extremely good, but so much so as to invite disbelief.
Mark Brader > "Sir, your composure baffles me. A single counterexample Toronto > refutes a conjecture as effectively as ten... Hands up! (Email Removed) > You have to surrender." Imre Lakatos

My text in this article is in the public domain.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Agatha Christie: "David": Mark Brader: Jerry Friedman:[/nq]
[nq:2]In light of this, "Wonderful is the word!" may have ... something to wonder at. Something to have doubts about, even.[/nq]
[nq:1]But that meaning of "wonderful" is about as obsolete as the sense of "awful" where it means "awe-inspiring".[/nq]
From my reading of detective novels, I believe that meaning was still current in England in the 1920s, but I don't have any citations. Does anybody know?
[nq:1]It is true that the second speaker continued, "There's got to be a catch." But I think it's clear from ... said "incredibly", I did intend a double meaning: it was extremely good, but so much so as to invite disbelief.[/nq]
Aha! (Just kidding.)

Jerry Friedman

What does the "Wonderful is the word" mean?

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