Brobdingnagian

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English

WOTD – 2 March 2006

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Brobdingnag +‎ -ian.

Pronunciation

Adjective

Brobdingnagian (comparative more Brobdingnagian, superlative most Brobdingnagian)

  1. Of or pertaining to Brobdingnag.
  2. (figurative) Enormous, huge, far larger than is customary for such a thing.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:large
    Antonyms: lilliputian; see also Thesaurus:tiny
    • 1899, I Zangwill, “The Keeper of Conscience”, in “They that Walk in Darkness”: Ghetto Tragedies, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Jewish Publication Society of America, →OCLC, section VII, page 289:
      When, at the head-centre, the lady demonstrator, armed with a Brobdingnagian whalebone needle, threaded with a bright red cord, executed herringboned fantasias on a canvas frame resembling a violin stand, it all looked easy enough.
    • 1907, Booth Tarkington, “Glamour”, in His Own People:
      The two men followed Madame de Vaurigard into a square hall, hung with tapestries and lit by two candles of a Brobdingnagian species Mellin had heretofore seen only in cathedrals.
    • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, page 52:
      Again I stress the matter of sheer scale: the teachers were enormous compared to us and this lent a Brobdingnagian aspect to the scene.
    • 2022 March 22, Dixe Wills, “Aberdeen to Penzance: the spectacular sights of Britain’s longest train journey”, in The Guardian‎:
      Once a week, a train pulls out of Aberdeen station at 08.20 and heads south. There’s no great fanfare, no particular sense of occasion, and the train itself is only five coaches long. However, everything else about this service is Brobdingnagian.

Derived terms

Noun

Brobdingnagian (plural Brobdingnagians)

  1. A creature from Brobdingnag.
  2. (figuratively) A giant.

Further reading

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