different between prodigious vs gruesome

English

Etymology

From Middle French prodigieux, from Latin pr?digi?sus (“unnatural, strange, wonderful, marvelous”), from pr?digium (“an omen, portent, monster”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p???d?d???s/
• Rhymes: -?d??s

Adjective

prodigious (comparative more prodigious, superlative most prodigious)

1. Very big in size or quantity; gigantic; colossal; huge.
2. Extraordinarily exciting or amazing.
3. (obsolete) Ominous, portentous.
4. Monstrous; freakish.

Synonyms

• gigantic, colossal, huge, enormous; See also Thesaurus:gigantic
• amazing
• ominous, portentous

Derived terms

• prodigiously

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

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

English

Etymology

From grue (“to shudder”) +? -some. Compare Danish and Norwegian grusom (“horrible”), German grausam (“cruel”), and Dutch gruwzaam (“gruesome; cruel”).

Adjective

gruesome (comparative gruesomer or more gruesome, superlative gruesomest or most gruesome)

1. Repellently frightful and shocking; horrific or ghastly.
   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 6

     In the middle of the floor lay a skeleton, every vestige of flesh gone from the bones to which still clung the mildewed and moldered remnants of what had once been clothing. Upon the bed lay a similar gruesome thing, but smaller, while in a tiny cradle near-by was a third, a wee mite of a skeleton.

Translations