Brobdingnag [ˈbrɒbdɪŋˌnæg] n. Often incorrectly Brobdignag.
1.) The name given by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver's Travels to an imaginary country where everything is on a gigantic scale. Hence used attributively as: Of, or pertaining to, that country; of huge dimensions; immense; gigantic (O.E.D. 2nd Ed.).
"Huge untutored Brobdignag genius,—needing only to be tamed down; into Shakspeares, Dantes, Goethes! It is all gone now, that old Norse work,—Thor the Thunder-god changed into Jack the Giant-killer: but the mind that made it is here yet" (On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History, Thomas Carlyle, 1841).
2 comments:
On the rare occasions this word is still used, I usually see it used as an adjective -- "Brobdingnagian." I think its opposite, "Lilliputian," gets used more often and is known more by people because it rolls off the tongue much more easily.
the chances of me remembering this word...are low, but I like the sound of it.
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