Re: prodigious vs. prolific

sygsix@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

This is just my point! Obviously prodigious is being used in these
examples as a synonym for prolific. You say it's wrong, ok. But that's
how it's being used. It doesn't make sense to write in the same
sentence that a writer is prodigious because he has written many books,
if you don't mean to say he was prolific.

As for losing the bet, because it's not in the dictionary,

Careful, there, friend (if you're still around). It's sneaking in the
side door even as we speak. Here's Cambridge, no less:

prodigious
adjective FORMAL
extremely great in ability, amount or strength:
She wrote a truly prodigious number of novels.
She was a prodigious musician.
He had a prodigious appetite for both women and drink

<http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=63147&dict=CALD>

Several dictionaries give as one definition of "prodigious" something
like "great in amount, size, or extent." A prolific author's corpus
of work can be described as "prodigious" even under a relatively
cramped view of the definition of the word. Add a bit of hypallage
(transferred epithet) and voila! -- a prodigious author.

On the other hand, it's not as if we need a new sense of "prodigious"
to serve as a synonym to "prolific." If I made the rules, I'd
disallow it. But I don't make those rules. No one here does
(although some of our occasional AUE visitors, such as John Lawler and
Jesse Sheidlower come close).

well, language is always one step its documentors.

You can owe us a couple of words.

[ ... ]

Anyway, it's been a fun chat!

If only you'd stayed a bit longer, we might have gotten around to
top-posting.

Ah, well ...

--
Bob Lieblich
Prodigious poster (but on a diet)
.

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