wunderkind
/ˈvʊndəkɪnd
/noun (plural wunderkinds or wunderkinder /ˈvʊndəkɪndə/)
A person who achieves great success when relatively young: the economics wunderkind who was a tenured professor at 29...
- Don't Look Back reminds us that our gifted wunderkinds are still young people, unfinished youths waiting to grow into the adults they will become.
- Teenage wunderkinds are ten-a-penny; on the strength of one decent performance, a young conductor can be hailed as the new Karajan.
- Called variously a child prodigy, a boy wonder, and the wunderkind of science fiction, Delany began to write when he was quite young.
Origin
Late 19th century: from German, from Wunder 'wonder' + Kind 'child'.