What does prodigal mean?
I’ve always thought of the Biblical story of the prodigal son. The word prodigal seemed to imply a run away, a ne’er do well, an ungrateful person.
Not so. Prodigal is all about lavish generosity – to the point of foolishness. The prodigal son was all about someone who spent without regard to wisdom or sensibility.
In our vocabularies, we incline towards the use of words based on current understandings, or implied ideas. Etymology – the study of evolution of words – can often bring us to a new understanding.
That’s what I love about the bucket of definition. As you stir the word in the bucket, old ideas become clear and new images emerge as evolutionary sediment settles to the bottom. And sometimes, it seems that a lightning strike to the bucket causes a new definition to emerge.
Just a bit of a thought – not an electronic bit, but a sizable bit – but then I may be a bit off on that, just in case you get bit with word fever!!
That didn’t take you long 🙂