prodigious

Etymology

From Middle French prodigieux, from Latin prodigiosus (“unnatural, strange, wonderful, marvelous”), from prodigium (“an omen, portent, monster”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹəˈdɪd͡ʒəs/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪdʒəs

Adjective

prodigious (comparative more prodigious, superlative most prodigious)

1. Very big in size or quantity; gigantic; colossal; huge.
   • 1749, John Cleland, “part 3”, in Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, London: G. Fenton, OCLC 13050889:

     Its prodigious size made me shrink again; yet I could not, without pleasure, behold, and even ventur'd to feel, such a length, such a breadth of animated ivory!

2. extraordinarily exciting or amazing
3. (obsolete) ominous, portentous
4. monstrous; freakish

Further reading

• prodigious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• prodigious in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• prodigious at OneLook Dictionary Search