wunderkind
Meaning
a person who achieves great success when relatively young.
Usage
the tech entrepreneur was hailed as a wunderkind after her app went viral.
the orchestra featured a violin wunderkind as the soloist for the evening.
despite being a financial wunderkind in his twenties, he remained humble.
Etymology
The word 'wunderkind' is a direct loan from German, entering English in the late 19th century. It is a compound formed from the German words 'wunder', meaning 'wonder' or 'miracle', and 'kind', meaning 'child'. The term originally referred to a child prodigy, especially in music, but its meaning in English has broadened to describe any person who is remarkably successful at a young age. The logic of the word perfectly captures the sense of marvel at precocious talent, a concept for which English lacked a single, equally evocative term.
Analysis
This is a loanword from German. It is not segmented into separate English morphemes as it functions as a single lexical unit.