prodigal

prodigal (ˈprɒdɪɡ^əl)

—*adj*
1.	recklessly wasteful or extravagant, as in disposing of goods or money
2.	lavish in giving or yielding: prodigal of compliments

—n
3.	a person who spends lavishly or squanders money

[C16: from Medieval Latin prōdigālis wasteful, from Latin prōdigus lavish, from prōdigere to squander, from pro-¹ + agere to drive]

prodi'gality

—n

'prodigally

—*adv*

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

prodigal

mid-15c., back formation from prodigiality (mid-14c.), from O.Fr. prodigalite (13c.), from L.L. prodigalitatem (nom. prodigalitas) "wastefulness," from L. prodigus "wasteful," from prodigere "drive away, waste," from pro- "forth" + agere "to drive" (see act). First ref. is to

prodigial son, from Vulgate L. filius prodigus (Luke xv.11-32).

Example sentences

The future of the city is, in great measure, in the hands of these prodigal

sons and daughters.

It was not a prodigal's return to neoconservatism, from one simplicity to

another.

The advanced system installed at the centralized location speeds up processing

by relying on a computer's prodigal memory.

At a garden party the food is often much more prodigal than at a tea in town.

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fast frugal improvident prodigal son

Matching Quote

"Go bind thou up young dangling apricots
Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight.
Give some supportance to the bending twigs.
Go thou, and like an executioner
Cut off the heads of too-fast-growing sprays
That look too lofty in our commonwealth.
All must be even in our government.
You thus employed, I will go root away
The noisome weeds which without profit suck
The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers."

-Shakespeare