Etymologically
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colossal

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /kəˈlɒsəl/[1]
  • US: /kəˈlɑsəl/, /kəˈlɒsəl/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French colossal,[2][3][4][5][6] recorded in Middle French before 1596,[2] formed from colosse (“colossus”) and the suffix -al.[2][7] The French noun is from Latin colossus (“a statue larger than life”),[3][4][7] from Ancient Greek κολοσσός (kolossós, “gigantic statue”),[3][8] a word of unknown origin[8] that Wiktionary takes as Pre-Greek.[9] Herodotus first used it of certain huge statues in Egypt, and it became widely known as the name of the Colossus of Rhodes, a vast statue of Apollo at the entrance to the harbour of Rhodes.[8][10] The OED compares the colloquial sense with German kolossal.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Like a colossus, vast in size or extent: 1664, in John Evelyn's translation of Fréart's Parallel of the Antient Architecture,[2][5] the mid 17th century in the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins;[10] Etymonline gives 1712,[3] and Dictionary.com 1705–15.[11]

Semantic evolution

English had tried other adjectives first: colossic from about 1600 and colossean in the 17th century, but in the 18th century colossal prevailed.[3][8] From 1712 it was used of statues and human figures of very great size,[2] and in sculpture it came to mean about twice life-size.[12] From 1794 it was used of abstract things, "tremendous, immense";[2] from 1775 it was used of a person of great importance or influence.[2] In colloquial use it became an intensifier, "complete, utter" (1855), and, originally in the United States, a word of praise, "magnificent, superb" (1895).[2][13] In 20th-century architecture a colossal order is one whose columns rise through more than one storey.[13][12]

Timeline

  • c. 1600 – the earlier adjective colossic.[3]
  • 1664 – like a colossus; gigantic.[2][5]
  • 1712 – of a statue or figure, very large.[2][3]
  • 1775 – of a person, of great importance.[2]
  • 1794 – of abstract things, immense, tremendous.[2]
  • 1855 – colloquial, complete, utter.[2]
  • 1895 – chiefly US, magnificent, superb.[2]
  • mid 20th century – in architecture, of an order more than one storey high.[13]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Of very great size; huge, gigantic: a colossal statue of the emperor.[12][5][2]
  2. Extraordinarily great in degree or effect; tremendous: a colossal blunder.[5][2]
  3. In sculpture, about twice life-size.[12]
  4. In architecture, of an order of columns or pilasters that extend through more than one storey.[12][13]
  5. (colloquial) Magnificent, remarkable.[13][2]

Word family

  • colossally
  • supercolossal

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  9. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  10. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press