prodigal

Etymology

The OED takes it as apparently borrowed from Middle French prodigal (“lavish, generous, recklessly extravagant”), recorded in 1412–13 but rare before the 16th century, or as an independent formation on prodigue or Latin prōdigus with -al, after the older prodigality.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary and Dictionary.com make it a back-formation from prodigality,^[3][4] Partridge sees that back-formation already in French,^[5] and Barnhart and Etymonline combine these routes.^[6][7] Hoad, Klein, Collins and the Shorter Oxford instead derive it from Late Latin prōdigālis,^{[8][9][10][11]} which the Shorter Oxford calls implied by, but recorded later than, the noun and adverb;^[11] the OED finds the adjective in a British source of about 1540.^[2] The Latin adjective, "wasteful, lavish", is from prōdigō (“to drive away, squander”), from prōd- (“forth”), a form of prō-, and agō (“to drive”),^[6][7][3][9] from Proto-Indo-European *ag- (“to drive, draw out or forth, move”).^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Recklessly wasteful of one's property or means: in Gilbert Hay's Buke of Gouernaunce of Princis, in the OED's dating about 1485, a text of 1456.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged says the 15th century,^[12] Etymonline about 1500,^[7] and Barnhart 1500–20, in Dunbar.^[6] The noun prodigality is much older, from 1340.^[2][13][6]

Semantic evolution

The word first judged people who waste their means, and by about 1513 also things and actions marked by waste.^[2] Weekley says it was first used of the Prodigal Son,^[14] though the OED's earliest such use, from 1508, comes after its first record of the plain sense.^[2] The parable in Luke 15 gave it a second sense, a person who lives recklessly away from home and then returns repentant,^[2][15] and the OED compares Middle French enfant prodigue (1560) and the Latin filius prodigus of a marginal note to the Vulgate, of 1523 or earlier.^[2] From the 1590s the idea of waste could fall away, leaving a neutral or even admiring "lavish, generous, abundant",^[2][7] as in prodigal of, "generously supplied with" (1598, Shakespeare).^[2] Johnson (1755) gives only the wasteful and lavish range, with quotations such as "prodigal of blood" from Dryden.^[16] The noun, a spendthrift, is recorded from 1547,^[2][12] and replaced an earlier prodige;^[6] to play the prodigal dates from 1602,^[2] and today the noun is especially a returned wanderer.^[11] English dialect went another way: from Kent in 1736, and in counties from Cheshire to Dorset, the OED and Wright record "proud, conceited, upstart",^[2][17] and in Berkshire "troublesome", used of a child.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1485 – recklessly wasteful of one's means.^[2]
• 1508 – of a person who has lived recklessly away from home and returned repentant.^[2]
• before 1513 – of things and actions, wastefully lavish, in Dunbar.^[2]
• 1547 – noun, a spendthrift.^[2][12]
• 1570 – wasteful of a particular resource or possession.^[2]
• 1595 – giving or yielding on a lavish scale; generous, abundant.^[2]
• 1600 – noun, a repentant returned wanderer, in The Merchant of Venice.^[2] Barnhart dates the noun in this play to 1596.^[6]
• 1602 – to play the prodigal.^[2]
• 1603 – adverb, lavishly (rare), in Hamlet.^[2][12]
• 1628 – verb, to squander (obsolete by 1840).^[2]
• 1736 – in dialect, proud.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Recklessly wasteful, especially with money: He was prodigal with his late aunt's fortune.^[10][12][2]
2. Giving or yielding something on a lavish scale; generous or abundant: prodigal of praise.^[10][15][2]
3. Of a person, having left home for a reckless life and come back repentant; wayward: the prodigal son.^[2][15]
4. (dialect) Proud, conceited.^[2][11][17]

Noun

1. A person who spends wastefully; a spendthrift: The young prodigal sold the farm within a year.^[10][12][2]
2. A person who has lived recklessly and returned repentant, or simply a returned wanderer: The prodigal came back at Christmas.^[12][2][11]

Adverb

1. (obsolete) Lavishly.^[12][2][11]

Word family

• prodigally
• prodigality
• prodigal son

Related words

• agent
• act
• pro-

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 s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)