Saturday, January 26, 2013

Brobdingnag



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).

(Tors strid med jättarna, Mårten Eskil Winge, 1872)
Posted by -E- at 11:15 PM

2 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

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.

January 27, 2013 at 12:23 AM
Poke The Rock said...

the chances of me remembering this word...are low, but I like the sound of it.

January 29, 2013 at 4:40 AM

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