prodigy
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English
Etymology
From Middle English prodige (“portent”), from Latin prōdigium (“omen, portent, prophetic sign”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɒdɪd͡ʒi/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (General American) IPA(key): /ˈpɹɑdɪd͡ʒi/
- Hyphenation: prod‧i‧gy
Noun
prodigy (plural prodigies)
- An extraordinary occurrence or creature; an anomaly, especially a monster; a freak.
- An amazing or marvellous thing; a wonder.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XXXII, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 153:
- He is never chased; he would run away with rope-walks of line. Prodigies are told of him.
- A wonderful example of something.
- An extremely talented person, especially a child.
- (archaic) An extraordinary thing seen as an omen; a portent.
- 1717, Homer, [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book XII”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume III, London: W Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott , →OCLC:
- These on the farther bank now stood and gazed, / By Heaven alarm’d, by prodigies amazed: / A signal omen stopp’d the passing host, / Their martial fury in their wonder lost.
- 1727, William Warburton, “Part I”, in A Critical and Philosophical Enquiry into the Causes of Prodigies and Miracles, as Related by Historians. , London: Thomas Corbett, , →OCLC, page 1:
- Prodigies and Portents have infected the beſt VVritings of Antiquity; and have ſo blotted and deformed our modern Annals, that (vvith greater Juſtice than Polybius has obſerv'd it, of the former) they may be rather called Tragedies than History.
- 1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 87:
- John Foxe believed that special prodigies had heralded the Reformation.
Synonyms
- (extremely talented person): wunderkind, girl wonder, girl-genius, boy-genius, boy wonder, child prodigy.
Coordinate terms
- (extremely talented person): idiot savant, savant
Translations
amazing or marvelous thing
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wonderful example of something
extremely talented person, especially a child
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extraordinary thing seen as an omen
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See also
References
- “prodigy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “prodigy”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “prodigy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
