Prodigal means spending money wastefully and without limit. Prodigal spending, the prodigal son, prodigal with his talent.
Almost everybody meets it in the parable of the prodigal son, and almost everybody misreads it: prodigal means wasteful, not returning or repentant, so a prodigal son who comes home is coming home despite the word rather than because of it.
1adjectiveprodigalSpending money wastefully and without limit.
“The prodigal young heir spent his father's fortune on horses and parties.”
prodigal is a quality.
Latin prodigus means lavish, from prodigere, to squander — prod, forth, plus agere, to drive.
Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Latin
prōdigālis — wasteful
Middle French
prodigal
English, today
prodigal
Built from
From Middle French prodigal, from Latin prōdigālis (“wasteful”), from Latin prōdigus (“wasteful, lavish, prodigal”), from prōdigō (“to consume, squander, drive forth”), from prōd- [from prō (“before, forward”)] + agō (“to drive”). Also see unrelated prodigy. The senses of "abandoning a person or cause" and "returning after abandonment" are by allusion to the New Testament story commonly called "The Parable of the Prodigal Son", [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+15:11–32 Luke 15:11–32]. See prodigal son.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA