Wunderkind
Etymology
From German Wunderkind, literally “wonder child,” from Wunder (“wonder, miracle”) plus Kind (“child”). It entered English in the late nineteenth century, first for musical prodigies and then for any startlingly precocious achiever.
noun · /VOON-der-kint/
A person who achieves dazzling success at an unusually young age.
What it names
The child prodigy grown into public phenomenon — the twenty-two-year-old founder or teenage virtuoso the world watches, half in awe, half waiting to see if it holds.
Example
The gallery built its whole spring show around a painting wunderkind barely out of art school.
Related idea
A prodigy is any exceptional talent; wunderkind stresses youth and dazzling early success, often with a faint whiff of “can it last?”