prodigious

comparative more prodigious · superlative most prodigious

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

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   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

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      […] 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

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      [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

2. Very big in extent, quantity, or size; abundant; intense; colossal, huge.

   [T]he figges […] are a fruit for a king, anſvverable to the mightie, huge, and prodigious tree that beareth it.

   1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book XII.] Of Certain Thornes and Fig-trees of India.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 360

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   This Urſula is ſaid to have carried over out of Britain, eleven thouſand Maids of prime quality, beſides threeſcore thouſand of meaner rank, (ſeventy one thouſand in all, a prodigious number,) to be married to ſo many in little Britain in France. Prepoſterous in my mind, to proffer themſelves, and it had argued more modeſty if their Husbands had fetcht them hence.

   a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “Cornwall”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC, page 199

   VVHEN John firſt brought out the Bills, the Surprize of all the Family vvas unexpreſſible, at the prodigious Dimenſions of them; […]

   1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “How John Look’d Over His Attorney’s Bill”, in Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC, page 20

   [I]t [a penis] vvas poſitively of ſo tremendous a ſize, […] you might have troll'd dice ſecurely along the broad back of the body of it: the length of it too vvas prodigious; […]

   Fanny Hill

   1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the Second]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume II, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 188

   [T]hey were not the spoiled children of affectation and refinement, but a bold, vigorous, independent race of thinkers, with prodigious strength and energy, with none but natural grace, and heartfelt unobtrusive delicacy.

   1820, William Hazlitt, “Lecture I. Introductory.”, in Lectures Chiefly on the Dramatic Literature of the Age of Elizabeth. […], London: Stodart and Steuart, […]; Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, →OCLC, page 2

   I considered the matter a moment, and then up stairs we went, and I was ushered into a small room, cold as a clam, and furnished, sure enough, with a prodigious bed, almost big enough indeed for any four harpooneers to sleep abreast."

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 3”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   Synonyms: extreme, prolific, enormous, gigantic, ample, big, bodacious, broad · Antonyms: compact, fun size, fun-sized, ickle, insignificant, lit'l, little, low

3. archaicobsoleteHaving the nature of an omen or portent; ominous, portentous.

   [T]he blots of natures hand / Shall not in their iſſue ſtand. / Neuer mole, hare-lippe, nor ſcarre, / Nor marke prodigious, ſuch as are / Deſpiſed in natiuitie, / Shall vpon their children be.

   c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], signature H4, recto

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   [T]here happened a prodigious token to Denis tyrant of Sicilie [i.e., Dionysius I of Syracuse], vvhen hee vvas expelled and depoſed from that mightie ſtate of his, and this it vvas; The ſea vvater vvithin one day in the haven grevv to be freſh and ſvveet.

   1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “[Book II.] The Power of the Sunne, and why the Sea is Salt.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], 1st tome, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, page 44

   Synonyms: foreboding, inauspicious, augurous, baleful, bodeful, boding, dire, disastrous

comparative more prodigious · superlative most prodigious

1. archaicSynonym of prodigiously (“in a prodigious manner”).

   I have fewer books than leisure to read them, and I have a prodigious big appetite.

   1863 November – 1864 February, [Elizabeth] Gaskell, “Cousin Phillis. Part I.”, in Cousin Phillis. And Other Tales. […], illustrated edition, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1865, →OCLC, page 31

   Synonyms: prodigiously