Brobdingnagian

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English

WOTD – 2 March 2006

Etymology

From Brobdingnag +‎ -ian.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

Brobdingnagian (comparative more Brobdingnagian, superlative most Brobdingnagian)

  1. Of or pertaining to Brobdingnag.
  2. (figuratively) Enormous, huge, far larger than is customary for such a thing.
    • 1899, Israel Zangwill, They that Walk in Darkness: Ghetto Tragedies, page 289:
      When, at the head-centre, the lady demonstrator, armed with a Brobdingnagian whalebone needle, threaded with a bright red cord, executed herringboned fantasias on a canvas frame resembling a violin stand, it all looked easy enough.
    • 1907, Booth Tarkington, “Glamour”, in His Own People:
      The two men followed Madame de Vaurigard into a square hall, hung with tapestries and lit by two candles of a Brobdingnagian species Mellin had heretofore seen only in cathedrals.
    • 2010, Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22, Atlantic 2011, page 52:
      Again I stress the matter of sheer scale: the teachers were enormous compared to us and this lent a Brobdingnagian aspect to the scene.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Noun

Brobdingnagian (plural Brobdingnagians)

  1. A creature from Brobdingnag.
  2. (figuratively) A giant.
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