Noah Webster
Prodigy
PROD'IGY, noun [Latin prodigium, from prodigo, to shoot out, drive out, properly to spread to a great extent.
1. Any thing out of the ordinary process of nature, as so extraordinary as to excite wonder or astonishment; as a prodigy of learning.
2. Something extraordinary from which omens are drawn; portent. Thus eclipses and meteors were anciently deemed prodigies.
3. A monster; an animal or other production out of the ordinary course of nature.