thaumaturgus

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Medieval Latin thaumaturgus, from Ancient Greek θαυματουργός (thaumatourgós). Doublet of thaumaturge.

thaumaturgus means A miracle worker. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why “thaumaturgus” is a great word

THAUMATURGUS — [Noun] A performer of miracles, especially one regarded as divinely empowered. From Medieval Latin *thaumaturgus*, from Ancient Greek *thaumatourgós*, from *thauma* ("wonder, miracle") + *ergon* ("work"). Unlike a "thaumaturge," a broader, often literary term for any wonder-worker, or a "conjurer," who performs through clever artifice for entertainment, the thaumaturgus channels a sanctified, unearned authority. This is the desert saint whose prayers make water spring from sun-baked stone, the holy man whose shadow heals the sick on a dusty Byzantine street, the revered tomb where bones are said to weep—a testament to the human ache for a tangible breach in a silent universe.

noun

A miracle worker.“If to-morrow a thaumaturgus present himself with credentials sufficiently important to be discussed, and announce himself as able, say, to raise the dead, what would be done? A commission, composed of physiologists, physicists, chemists, persons accustomed to historical criticism, would be named.”