Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person with exceptional talents or powers.
  • noun An act or event so extraordinary or rare as to inspire wonder.
  • noun Archaic A portentous sign or event; an omen.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Something extraordinary from which omens are drawn; a portent.
  • noun A person or thing so extraordinary as to excite great wonder or astonishment.
  • noun A monster; an animal or other production out of the ordinary course of nature.
  • noun Synonyms Sign, wonder, miracle.
  • noun 2. Marvel.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Something extraordinary, or out of the usual course of nature, from which omens are drawn; a portent.
  • noun Anything so extraordinary as to excite wonder or astonishment; a marvel.
  • noun A production out of ordinary course of nature; an abnormal development; a monster.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun archaic Something from which omens are drawn.
  • noun An amazing or marvellous thing.
  • noun A wonderful example of something.
  • noun An extremely talented person, especially a child.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a sign of something about to happen
  • noun an unusually gifted or intelligent (young) person; someone whose talents excite wonder and admiration
  • noun an impressive or wonderful example of a particular quality

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English prodige, portent, from Latin prōdigium.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English prodige ("portent"), from Latin prōdigium ("omen, portent, prophetic sign")

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Examples

Comments

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  • Interesting etymology: from Latin "omen"

    July 8, 2007

  • Other sources translate the Latin is also "prophetic sign", which makes a bit more sense. A prodigy is a sign of future greatness, or a twisted firestarter.

    July 8, 2007