Crossword Dictionary
dazzle
dazzle, dazzled, dazzles, dazzling - v
to blind by bright light.
amaze or bewilder, as with brilliant wit or intellect or skill.
etymology
dazzle (v.)
late 15c., "be stupefied, be confused" (a sense now obsolete), frequentative of Middle English dasen "be stunned, be bewildered" (see daze (v.)). Originally intransitive; the transitive sense of "overpower with strong or excessive light" is from 1530s. The figurative sense of "overpower or excite admiration by brilliancy or showy display" is from 1560s. As a noun, "brightness, splendor," 1650s.
daze (v.)
late 14c., dasen, "be stunned; make bewildered," perhaps from Old Norse *dasa (dasask "to become weary," with reflexive suffix -sk). Or perhaps from Middle Dutch dasen "act silly." Perhaps originally "to make weary with cold" (a sense in English from c. 1400), which is the sense of Icelandic dasask (from the Old Norse word).