Idiom
nine-day wonder
Meaning
Something that generates interest for a limited time and is then abandoned.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“That new viral video is just a nine-day wonder.”
“I hope this new hobby is not just another nine-day wonder.”
“The media obsessed over the new gadget for a week, but it proved to be a nine-day wonder.”
“Many people worried the new fitness trend would be a nine-day wonder, but it has remained popular for over a year now.”
“The neighbors complained about the loud construction for a week, but the drama was a nine-day wonder once the work finished.”
“While the politician's radical proposal initially captured the public imagination, it ultimately became a nine-day wonder, quickly forgotten as the next scandal emerged.”
Examples
simple
“That new viral video is just a nine-day wonder.”
“I hope this new hobby is not just another nine-day wonder.”
contextual
“The media obsessed over the new gadget for a week, but it proved to be a nine-day wonder.”
“Many people worried the new fitness trend would be a nine-day wonder, but it has remained popular for over a year now.”
“The neighbors complained about the loud construction for a week, but the drama was a nine-day wonder once the work finished.”
complex
“While the politician's radical proposal initially captured the public imagination, it ultimately became a nine-day wonder, quickly forgotten as the next scandal emerged.”
Origin
From nine + day + wonder (“something that causes amazement or awe”). References to a period of nine days or nights to describe the length of a short-lived fad date from as early as the 14th century; see, for instance, Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1380s) by the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340s – 1400; spelling modernized): “Ek [besides] wonder last but nine days never in town”.
Key words
Related idioms
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