Prodi-what now?

I came across this article last summer during a brief break in bar study and felt that it needed to be shared. However, since the break was supposed to be brief, I didn't have time to write a full blog post and instead saved it in a document to be blogged about later (read: After the Bar). And then in the dizzy relief that was After the Bar I forgot all about it until I ran across my note last night. So it's a little late, but I still think it's worth bringing up.

In case you don't feel like clicking through to read the whole article, here is the relevant paragraph (italics are mine):

Lady Gaga may not have attained John Lennon's cult status yet, but she certainly knows how to play a piano. The pop star was classically trained in the instrument from the age of 4, to prodigal results. Gaga began giving concerts in elementary school and wrote her first keyboard ballad at 13. The Lady continued her musical education through college, majoring in the subject at NYU.

I get what it's trying to say: She was a musical prodigy at the age of four. (I wonder what happened there. . . .)

But that's not what it actually is saying.

You see, the adjectival form of "prodigy" is not, as one might think, "prodigal." It is the less-commonly heard and sillier-sounding "prodigious." (I don't know about you, but I hear "prodigious" and I think of a really fat Dickensian character talking about a large amount of food. Is it just me?)

"Prodigal" probably comes to mind more readily because 1) it's just easier to say and 2) there's that whole parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11—32). You know, the one with the fatted calf? (And we're back to prodigious amounts of food. I promise I got enough to eat today.) But it's not really related to "prodigy"—at least not as far as my superficial research shows (cough dictionary.com cough)*—even though it sounds like it should be.

To review:

Prodigal
adj.: Spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant.
n.: A person who spends money in a recklessly extravagant manner.

Prodigious
adj. 1. Resembling or befitting a prodigy.
2. Exciting amazement or wonder.
3. Remarkably or impressively great in extent, size or degree.
4. Unnatural or abnormal.

Yeah, any way you look at it, I'm pretty sure that article should have said "prodigious."



*I lie. I also checked Merriam-Webster.