prodigious

What it means

1. Extraordinarily amazing.

   Prodigious! […] VVhat in the Name of VVonder hath brought you to England?

   1730, [Henry Fielding], Rape upon Rape; or, The Justice Caught in His Own Trap. A Comedy. […], London: […] J. Wat[t]s, […], →OCLC, Act III, scene v, page 33

   4 more examples

   VVhat am I? Old! or a Monſter! Is it ſo prodigious, that a Man ſhou'd like me?

   [1707], [Colley] Cibber, The Double Gallant: Or, The Sick Lady’s Cure. A Comedy. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott, […]; and sold by John Phillips, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene [i], page 23

   Prodigious! hovv the Things Proteſt, Proteſt: / Peace, Fools! or Gonſon vvill for Papiſts ſeize you, / If once he catch you at your Jeſu! Jeſu!

   1733, “an Eminent Hand” [pseudonym; Alexander Pope], The Impertinent, or A Visit to the Court. A Satyr. […], London: […] John Wil[f]ord, […], →OCLC, page 15

   '[T]is a marvel of marvels that this man should be a mighty King and ready for war, after his slaughter of all the wise men of his kingdom and his counsellors and the captains of his host and that his realm should be populous and prosper after this and there should issue therefrom this prodigious power!

   1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, “The Francolin and the Tortoises. [Night 927.]”, in A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume IX, [London]: […] Burton Club […], →OCLC, page 125

   A prodigious quantity of insects of all sorts (but no mosquitoes) assailed us at our evening meal.

   1930, André Gide, “Back Again”, in Dorothy Bussy, transl., Travels in the Congo […], red seal edition, New York, N.Y.: Modern Age Books, published 1937, →OCLC, part 2 (Back from the Chad), page 194

   1. In a positive sense: marvellous, wonderful; (specifically) extremely talented, especially at a young age.

      Iohn Ponce aforeſaid [i.e., Juan Ponce de León] hearing a rumour of a prodigious vvell, vvhich (as the Poets tell of Medea) vvould make olde men become young againe, plaid the yongling to goe ſearch it ſix monethes together, and in that inquirie diſcouers this Continent: […]

      1613, Samuel Purchas, “[Relations of the Discoveries, Regions, and Religions, of the New World.] Of Florida.”, in Purchas His Pilgrimage. Or Relations of the World and the Religions Observed in All Ages and Places Discouered, from the Creation vnto this Present. […], London: […] William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, […], →OCLC, book VIII (Of New France, Virginia, Florida; New Spaine, with Other Regions of America Mexicana, and of Their Religions), page 642

      1 more example

      […] Lafayette Square itself, contiguous to the Executive Mansion, could create a rich sense of the past by the use of scarce other witchcraft than its command of that pleasant perspective and its possession of the most prodigious of all Presidential effigies, Andrew Jackson, as archaic as a Ninevite king, prancing and rocking through the ages.

      1907 January 30, Henry James, “Washington”, in The American Scene, London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, section IV, page 355

      Synonyms: precocious

   2. In a negative sense: appalling, horrifying, shocking; (specifically, archaic) abnormal, freakish, monstrous, unnatural.

      [T]he good Dominie bore all his disasters with gravity and serenity equally imperturbable. "Prodi-gi-ous!" was the only ejaculation they ever extorted from the much-enduring man.

      1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC, page 116

      4 more examples

      [H]e [Thomas Arundell] by his euill counſaile and prodigious ſuggeſtions, craftilye circumuented the king, inducyng him to graunt his letters of pardon to a great traytour the Erle of Arondell his brother [Richard Fitzalan, 4th Earl of Arundel].

      1569, Richard Grafton, “Richarde the Seconde”, in A Chronicle at Large and Meere History of the Affayres of Englande […], volume II, London: […] Henry Denham, […], for Richarde Tottle and Humffrey Toye, →OCLC, page 390

      Cleanthes alleadged foure cauſes, which might induce man to acknowledge a God, […] the thirde by the terror that the minde of man is ſtroken into, by […] the prodigious ſhapes and vnnaturall formes of men, of beaſtes, of birdes, of fiſhes, of all creatures, […]

      [1578], Iohn Lylly [i.e., John Lyly], “Euphues and Atheos”, in Euphues. The Anatomy of Wyt. […], London: […] [Thomas East] for Gabriell Cawood, […], →OCLC, folio 68, verso

      [T]hrough many a dark and drearie Vaile / They paſs'd, and many a Region dolorous, / […] / VVhere all life dies, death lives, and nature breeds, / Perverſe, all monſtrous, all prodigious things, […]

      1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC, signature [F3], verso, lines 618–619 and 624–625

      Horrible things have been in this wild world, / Prodigious mixtures, and confusions strange / Of good and ill; and worse have been conceived / Than ever there was found a heart to do.

      1819, Percy B[ysshe] Shelley, The Cenci: A Tragedy, […], [Livorno], Italy: […] [Percy B. Shelley] for C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 37

      Synonyms: monstrous, aberrant, abnormal, alien, anomalous, as queer as Dick's hatband, bizarre, booky · Antonyms: average, medial, basic, bog-standard, common, commonplace, common-and-garden, common-or-garden

In a sentence

VVhat am I? Old! or a Monſter! Is it ſo prodigious, that a Man ſhou'd like me?

[1707], [Colley] Cibber, The Double Gallant: Or, The Sick Lady’s Cure. A Comedy. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott, […]; and sold by John Phillips, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene [i], page 23

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*per-der.?
2. Proto-Indo-European*pér
3. Proto-Indo-European*pró
4. Proto-Indo-European*pro-
5. Proto-Italic*pro-
6. Latinprō-
7. Proto-Indo-European*h₁eǵ-
8. Proto-Indo-European*h₁ǵyéti
9. Proto-Italic*agjō
10. Proto-Italic*ajjō
11. Latinaiō
12. Latinprōdigium
13. Proto-Indo-European*h₃ed-
14. Proto-Indo-European*h₃édosder.?
15. Latinprōdigiōsus
16. Middle Englishprodigious
17. Englishprodigious

The adjective is derived from Late Middle English prodigious (“warning of disaster, portentous”), from Latin prōdigiōsus (“strange, unnatural; marvellous, wonderful, prodigious”), from prōdigium (“prophetic sign, omen, portent; prodigy, wonder”) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of’ forming adjectives from nouns). Prōdigium is derived from prō- (prefix denoting a forward direction, something before or prior, or prominence) + aiō (“to say, speak”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵ- (“to say”)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). The English word is analysable as prodigy + -ous. The adverb is derived from the adjective. Cognates * Catalan prodigiós * Middle French prodigieux (“portentous”) (modern French prodigieux) * Italian prodigioso * Portuguese prodigioso * Spanish prodigioso