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# The Good Oil Word of the Day
- URL: https://goodoil.news/the-good-oil-word-of-the-day-244/
- Published: 2025-04-05T18:15:30.000Z
- Updated: 2025-04-05T18:15:29.000Z
- Author: David Theobald
- Tags: General, Word of the Day

The word for today is…

prodigy (noun):

1a: a highly talented child or youth  
b: an extraordinary, marvelous, or unusual accomplishment, deed, or event  
2a: something extraordinary or inexplicable  
b: a portentous event : omen

Source : [Merriam -Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prodigy?ref=goodoil.news)

Etymology : Is a prodigy a genius or a monster - or both? Nowadays, it's the talent that shines through, but back in the 15th century the word's meaning was more strongly influenced by that of its Latin ancestor, prodigium, meaning "omen" or "monster." Back then, a prodigy could be any strange or weird thing that might be an omen of things to come. Even in modern English, the word sometimes refers to an extraordinary deed or accomplishment. P.G. Wodehouse used that sense when he described how a character named Pongo Twistleton was "performing prodigies with the \[billiard\] cue."

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