2020-12-07
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด P – Prodigy – progeny – protégé
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง Prodigy = “PROD-i-jee’
ออกเสียง Progeny = ‘PROJ-uh-nee’
ออกเสียง protégé =’PROH-tuh-zhey’ or ‘proh-tuh-ZHEY’
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
The Lineage of Progeny
Progeny is the progeny of the Latin verb progignere, meaning "to beget."
That Latin word is itself an offspring of the prefix pro-, meaning "forth,"
and gignere, which can mean "to beget" or "to bring forth."
Gignere has produced a large family of English descendants,
including benign (meaning "mild" or "harmless"),
congenital (meaning inherent”), engine genius,germ,indigenous,ingenuous, and malign.
Gignere even paired up with pro- again to produce a close relative of progeny:
the noun progenitor, which can mean "an ancestor in the direct line,"
"a biologically ancestral form," or"a precursor or originator."
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Offspring & Progeny
Progeny. Offspring.
The former has a scientific ring to it,
while the latter sounds like it has just emerged from a dappled glen in a quiet forest.
Ralph Waldo Emerson put them both to good use in his essay "The Poet":
So when the soul of the poet has come to ripeness of thought, she detaches and sends away from it its poems or songs,—a fearless, sleepless, deathless progeny, which is not exposed to the accidents of the weary kingdom of time: a fearless, vivacious offspring, clad with wings (such was the virtue of the soul out of which they came), which carry them fast and far, and infix them irrecoverably into the hearts of men. These wings are the beauty of the poet's soul.
The word progeny has a Latin pedigree, natch,
and arrived in English via Anglo-French in the 14th century.
Offspring, from Old English roots meaning "off" and "to spring,"
was a fully mature adult, as far as words go, by then.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Did You Know?
Is a prodigy a genius or a monster - or both?
Nowadays, it's the talent that shines through,
but back in the 15th century the word's meaning was more strongly influenced by
that of its Latin ancestor, prodigium, meaning "omen" or "monster."
Back then, a prodigy could be any strange or weird thing that might be an omen of things to come.
Even in modern English, the word sometimes refers to an extraordinary deed or accomplishment.
P.G. Wodehouse used that sense when he described how a character named Pongo Twistleton was "performing prodigies with the [billiard] cue."
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage Notes
On 'Prodigy' and 'Progeny'
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Prodigy and progeny are two words that aren't confused very often,
but are similar enough
(in both the way they look and the fact that they're often used to refer to children)
that they might sometimes warrant a double-take.
Some progeny end up being prodigies, of course.
Prodigy refers to one who is extraordinarily talented,
often in a specified field, such as chess or tennis.
Six years later, the sixth-grader has developed a business, Jonah’s Hands, and a social media following. The young crochet prodigy has about 121,000 followers on Instagram and 20,000 on YouTube, who regularly marvel at Jonah’s colorful and complex art. — Helen Lee, The Arizona Daily Star, 28 Feb. 2018
Quite often, the context that surrounds prodigy implies that
the talented person is very young
with the promise of continuing to develop that talent into adulthood.
In spite of that connotation,
many writers draw attention to the person’s young age
by using the two-word term child prodigy.
Beginning her extraordinary life and career as a child prodigy, Burton-Lyles occasionally played piano for Anderson during morning services at Union Baptist Church, where her mother, piano teacher Anna Blanche (Taylor) Burton, often worked as a accompanist. — Kimberly C. Roberts, The Philadelphia Tribune, 4 Feb. 2019
Before that sense developed, however,
prodigy in its earliest use referred to an extraordinary thing interpreted as an omen.
That sense is now regarded as archaic,
but a related sense meaning “something extraordinary or inexplicable:
one that is abnormal or monstrous” survives.
That sense connects to the word’s origin, the Latin prodigium, meaning “omen” or “monster.”
A person who watched the interview between the dead and living scrupled not to affirm that at the instant when the clergyman's features were disclosed the corpse had slightly shuddered, rustling the shroud and muslin cap, though the countenance retained the composure of death. A superstitious old woman was the only witness of this prodigy. — Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” 1832
King: … What say you to't? will you again unknit
This churlish knot of all-abhorred war,
And move in that obedient orb again
Where you did give a fair and natural light;
And be no more an exhaled meteor,
A prodigy of fear, and a portent
Of broached mischief to the unborn times?
— William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, ca. 1597
Progeny is a word for one’s offspring or descendants,
derived from the Latin verb progignere, meaning “to beget” or “to bring forth.”
It can be used in scientific writing or, for instance, writing about horse breeding:
Great lawgivers, the founders of beneficent religions, great philosophers and discoverers in science, aid the progress of mankind in a far higher degree by their works than by leaving a numerous progeny. — Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, 1871
Air France also produced the G2-Sanford Stakes winner, Overdriven, who was a $200,000 weanling that sold for $350,000 as a yearling. Her progeny have earned a combined $1,623,931 on the racetrack to date. — Paulick Report, 8 May 2018
Though, like offspring,
progeny is sometimes used as a humorously “formal” way to refer to one’s children:
I have been known to start singing "Baby Shark" and other Pinkfong recordings spontaneously. The only escape from the company's music is the "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood" discography, a vast and growing library of Disney titles, or my progeny's latest fixation, the YouTube phenomenon called Mother Goose Club._ — Chris DeVille, The Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2019
Progeny can also refer to the outcome or product of a process,
such as “a book that was the progeny of many years of research.”
It’s rare for these words to be confused in edited writing,
though you might need to pause for a moment to keep them straight.
And if your progeny turn out to be language prodigies, you can always ask them.
Common Errors In English Usage Dictionary
Your progeny are your kids, though it would be pretty pretentious
to refer to them as such.
If your child is a brilliantly outstanding personhe or she may be a child prodigy.
In fact, anything amazingly admirable canbe a prodigy.
But a person that you take under your wing
in order to help promote his or her careeris your protégé.
