Etymologically
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prodigium

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [proːˈdɪ.ɡi.ũː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [proˈdiː.d͡ʒi.um][1]

Forms

prōdigium n (genitive prōdigiī or prōdigī); second declension[1] Pacuvius has a genitive plural prōdigium.[2]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed: the OLD connects the second part either with agō (“to drive, do”) or with aiō (“to say”).[3] De Vaan and the TLL take it with prōdigō (“to drive forth; to squander”), from ⟨agō⟩, the TLL thinking perhaps of signs the gods “drive forth”, though it finds the sense unclear.[4][5] Wiktionary and Köbler derive it instead from prō- and ⟨aiō⟩, a thing “foretold”, comparing adagium (“proverb”).[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,[4][6] where someone exclaims: “this is a prodigy: sheep are speaking to us with human voices”.[3]

Semantic evolution

It is an unnatural event or sign that foretells disaster, a portent, as in Accius, Cicero's speech on the answer of the soothsayers, and Livy.[3] It also means a monstrous situation, as when Cicero calls it a monstrous thing that cities' grain was rejected while Verres' own was accepted, and a monstrous person: Cicero calls Catiline “that monster and prodigy”.[3] It can also be a wonder, a marvel.[3]

Church Latin has it for a wonder, prodigy, marvel, miracle,[7] and Medieval Latin for a miracle.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of speaking sheep.[3][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of portents and of Catiline as a monster.[3][6]
  • 59 BC–AD 17 – Livy of the prodigies of the year.[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An unnatural event portending disaster, a portent, omen, prodigy.[3][2][1]
  2. A monstrous event or situation.[3]
  3. A monstrous person or thing, a monster; a wonder, marvel.[3][1][7]
  4. (Ecclesiastical and Medieval Latin) A miracle.[7][8]

Word family

  • prōdigiālis
  • prōdigiātor
  • prōdigiōsus

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts augurium and auspicium, signs within the ordinary course of nature read by augurs and magistrates, with prōdigium, ostentum, portentum and mōnstrum, which lie outside it: the prōdigium is full of meaning and consequences, the ostentum arouses wonder, the portentum terror, and the mōnstrum is unnatural and ugly.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  9. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper