Etymologically
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prodigiosus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [proː.dɪ.ɡiˈoː.sʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [pro.di.d͡ʒiˈɔː.s̬us][1]

Forms

prōdigiōsus (feminine prōdigiōsa, neuter prōdigiōsum); first/second-declension adjective[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin prōdigium (“portent, prodigy”) + -ōsus.[2][3][4] Wiktionary takes prōdigium to be formed from prō-, aiō (“to say”) and -ium.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Ovid on,[5][4] meaning marvellous or unnatural, as in the wondrous halls of Circe in the Metamorphoses.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In Ovid and later poetry it meant marvellous, monstrous or unnatural.[2][3] It became frequent with Pliny the Elder,[5] who uses it of what has the nature of a portent, such as an eclipse of the sun, and of rites concerned with prodigies.[2] Quintilian applies it to bodies and Statius to stars, and Tacitus has prodigiosum dictu, “marvellous to tell”.[3] The comparative appears only late, in the Historia Augusta and Salvian.[3][5]

In Ecclesiastical Latin it meant miraculous.[6] English took prodigious from French and directly from Latin in the 1550s, at first meaning “ominous”.[7]

Timeline

  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of Circe's marvellous halls.[2][4]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of portentous eclipses.[2][4]
  • 1550s – English borrows it as prodigious.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Having the nature of a prodigy, portentous.[2]
  2. Concerned with prodigies.[2]
  3. Marvellous, monstrous, unnatural.[2][3]
  4. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Miraculous.[6]

Word family

  • prōdigiōsē

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com