prodigio

Forms

prodigio m (plural prodigios)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin prōdigium (“portent, prodigy, miracle”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin word meant an unnatural event that announces a disaster.^[5] Its formation is uncertain: the first part is prō- (“forth, before”), and the OLD connects the second either with agō (“to drive, do”) or with aiō (“to say”).^[5] Wiktionary follows the second view, with the suffix -ium.^[1] Lewis and Short derived it from prodīcō “to foretell”.^[6] Bénaben too calls its origin uncertain.^[7]

The adjective prodigioso was taken earlier, from prōdigiōsus: it is in Berceo.^[2][3] The same Latin noun gave French prodige and English prodigy.^[8] It is not related to pródigo.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest reliable hit is Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo's Suma de la política (1454–1457, in a copy of the second half of the 15th century). There, quoting Valerius Maximus, it says that ciertos prodigios y señales demostraron aquel destroço “certain portents and signs foretold that defeat”.^[9] Corominas and the BDELC date it to Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario of 1490, which explains that los prodigios significan que algund grand mal ha de venir “prodigies mean that some great evil is coming”.^[2][3][9] Several 15th-century hits spelt prodigio are really pródigo “prodigal”: in 1493 a man who is free with what little he has llaman le prodigio.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Corominas notes that the word is missing from Nebrija and the Quijote.^[2] Covarrubias has it, Góngora used it, and Fernández de Villegas has it in 1515.^[2] Autoridades quotes José de Acosta (1590) for the sense “a strange event beyond the bounds of nature”, and adds “a rare or exquisite thing” and “miracle”.^[10][2] The Academy kept these three senses through the 19th century.^[11][12]

From the marvellous thing came the marvellous person.^[4] A text of 1683 from New Granada calls a Lima scholar prodigio de sabiduría “a prodigy of learning”.^[13] In 1846 Domínguez records ser un prodigio de talento as a phrase.^[14] The DLE now gives this sense on its own, and the noun is often used in apposition, as in niño prodigio.^[4][15] Corominas calls it very common today in educated speech.^[2]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – the adjective prodigioso is found in Berceo.^[3][2]
• 1454–1457 – first record of the noun, in Sánchez de Arévalo's Suma de la política.^[9]
• 1490 – Palencia explains prodigios as signs of coming evil, the date the BDELC gives.^[9][3]
• 1515 – Fernández de Villegas uses the word.^[2]
• 1590 – José de Acosta writes of prodigios in his history of the Indies; first records from Mexico the same year.^[10][13]
• 1683 – prodigio de sabiduría is applied to a person in New Granada.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin prodigium.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strange event that goes beyond the normal bounds of nature; a portent, a marvel.^[4][15]
2. Something special, rare or exquisite of its kind: Aquel puente es un prodigio de ingeniería.^[4]
3. A miracle (milagro).^[4][1]
4. A person with some quality to an extraordinary degree; a prodigy.^[4][1]

Word family

• prodigioso
• niño prodigio

Related words

• portento
• Latin prodigium
• French prodige
• English prodigy

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 659
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prodigio
4. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. prodigio
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. prōdigium
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. prōdigium
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. prodigio
8. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 619
9. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. prodigio
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 393
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 706
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 868
13. ^ a b c Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. prodigio
14. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1428
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. prodigio