- gargantuan
- gargantuan 1590s, from Gargantua, large-mouthed giant in Rabelais' novels, supposedly from Sp./Port. garganta "gullet, throat," which is from the same imitative root as GARGLE (Cf. gargle).
Etymology dictionary. 2014.
gargantuan
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Gargantuan — Gar*gan tu*an (?; 135), a. [From Gargantua, an allegorical hero of Rabelais.] Characteristic of Gargantua, a gigantic, wonderful personage; enormous; prodigious; inordinate. [1913 Webster] … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
gargantuan — index prodigious (enormous) Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 … Law dictionary
gargantuan — *huge, vast, immense, enormous, elephantine, mammoth, giant, gigantic, gigantean, colossal, Herculean, cyclopean, titanic, Brobdingnagian … New Dictionary of Synonyms
gargantuan — [adj] very large big, colossal, elephantine, enormous, giant, gigantic, heavyweight, huge, humongous, immense, jumbo, leviathan, mammoth, massive, monstrous, monumental, mountainous, prodigious, supercolossal*, super duper*, titanic, towering,… … New thesaurus
gargantuan — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ enormous. ORIGIN from Gargantua, a voracious giant in Rabelais book of the same name (1534) … English terms dictionary
gargantuan — [gär gan′cho͞o ən] adj. [after GARGANTUA] enormous; gigantic … English World dictionary
gargantuan — [[t]gɑː(r)gæ̱ntʃuən[/t]] ADJ GRADED: usu ADJ n (emphasis) If you say that something is gargantuan, you are emphasizing that it is very large. [WRITTEN] ...a marketing event of gargantuan proportions. ...a gargantuan corruption scandal. Syn: huge … English dictionary
gargantuan — gar|gan|tu|an [ga:ˈgæntʃuən US ga:r ] adj written [Date: 1500 1600; Origin: Gargantua, name of a giant in the book Gargantua (1534) by François Rabelais] extremely large = ↑gigantic ▪ a meal of gargantuan proportions ▪ gargantuan task … Dictionary of contemporary English
gargantuan — adjective Usage: often capitalized Etymology: Gargantua Date: 1596 tremendous in size, volume, or degree ; gigantic, colossal < gargantuan waterfalls > … New Collegiate Dictionary
gargantuan — /gahr gan chooh euhn/, adj. gigantic; enormous; colossal: a gargantuan task. [1585 95; GARGANTU(A) + AN] Syn. huge, mammoth, immense, vast, elephantine. * * * … Universalium
