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Origin and history of prodigy

prodigy(n.)

mid-15c., prodige, "a sign, portent, something extraordinary from which omens are drawn," from Old French prodige and directly from Latin prodigium "prophetic sign, omen, portent, prodigy," from pro "forth, before" (see pro-) + -igium, a suffix or word of unknown origin, perhaps from the same source as aio "I say" (see adage) or agere "to drive" (de Vaan), from PIE root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move").

Meaning "person or thing so extraordinary as to excite wonder or astonishment" is from 1620s; the specific meaning "child with exceptional abilities" is by 1650s. Related: Prodigial.

also from mid-15c.

Entries linking to prodigy

adage(n.)

"brief, familiar proverb," 1540s, French adage (16c.), from Latin adagium "adage, proverb," apparently a collateral form of adagio, according to Watkins, from ad "to" (see ad-) + *agi-, root of aio "I say," which is perhaps cognate with Armenian ar-ac "proverb," asem "to say." But de Vaan says of the Latin word group that "word-internal a and their sporadic, relatively late attestation suggest that they were derived from adigo 'to drive, force'," related to agein "set in motion, drive, urge" (from PIE root *ag- "to drive, draw out or forth, move"). Related: Adagial.

prodigious(adj.)

1550s, "ominous, portentous" (a sense now obsolete), from French prodigieux and directly from Latin prodigiosus "strange, wonderful, marvelous, unnatural," from prodigium "an omen, portent, monster" (see prodigy).

From 1560s as "causing wonder or amazement;" 1570s as "unnatural, abnormal." The meaning "vast, enormous, wonderfully large" is from c. 1600. As a pseudo-adverb, "exceedingly," by 1670s. Related: Prodigiously; prodigiousness; prodigiosity.

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presage
late 14c., "something which portends or foreshadows," from Latin praesagium "a foreboding," from praesagire "to perceive beforehand, forebode," from praesagus (adj.) "perceiving beforehand, prophetic," from prae "before" (see pre-) + sagus "prophetic," related to sagire "perceive
prognostication
"foretelling or foreshadowing of future events by present signs," especially "act of making a medical prognosis," late 14c., pronasticacioun, from Old French pronosticacion (14c.) and directly from Medieval Latin *prognosticationem (nominative prognosticatio), noun of action from
black swan
ancestors ranged about her halls; let her be more chaste than all the dishevelled Sabine maidens who stopped the war—a prodigy...
sooth
It was used for Latin pro- in translating compounds into Old English, such as soðtacen "prodigy," soðfylgan "prosequi."...
vampire
D'Anvers tells of a Conversation he had about a certain Prodigy, mention'd in the News Papers of March last, viz. that in...
nineties
1857 as the years of someone's life between 90 and 99; from 1848 as the tenth decade of years in a given century; 1849 with reference to Fahrenheit temperature. See ninety. Many still live who remember those days; if the old men cannot tell you the exact date, they will say: 'It
bairn
"child" (of either gender or any age), "son or daughter," Old English bearn "child, son, descendant," from Proto-Germanic *barnan (source also of Old Saxon barn, Old Frisian bern, Old High German barn "child;" lost in modern German and Dutch), from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry,"
brain
"soft, grayish mass filling the cranial cavity of a vertebrate," in the broadest sense, "organ of consciousness and the mind," Old English brægen "brain," from Proto-Germanic *bragnan (source also of Middle Low German bregen, Old Frisian and Dutch brein), a word of uncertain orig
model
1570s, "likeness made to scale; architect's set of designs," from French modelle (16c., Modern French modèle), from Italian modello "a model, mold," from Vulgar Latin *modellus, from Latin modulus "a small measure, standard," diminutive of modus "manner, measure" (from PIE root *
Nome
city in Alaska, founded in the 1898 gold rush and originally Anvil City after the nearby Anvil Creek, it was later renamed for nearby Cape Nome, which, according to one story is from a misreading of a British cartographer's query, ?Name, written beside the peninsula on an 1849 ma

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