Dictionary

supercolossus en · NOUN

Pronunciation

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Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *úp Proto-Indo-European *-er Proto-Indo-European *upér Proto-Italic *super Latin super Latin super-lbor. English super- English colossus English supercolossus From super- + colossus.

Meanings

1. (figuratively, rare) Something that is of a very large size.
   • We, quote, "ain't seen nothing", because the Japanese have become a supercolossus in the economic competition. 1990, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies, Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations for 1991: Department of Commerce, page 948:
   • Like a supercolossus the Soviet Union sprawls over Eurasia with one foot on the heart of Europe and the second in the waters of the Pacific. 1969, Louis Fischer, Russia's road from peace to war: Soviet foreign relations, 1917-1941, page 80:
   • For the masters of the Kremlin have been no less aware of the sinister potentialities of a healthy and vigorous supercolossus whose population was at least three times as large as their own. 1963, Max Nomad, Political heretics: from Plato to Mao Tse-tung, page 337:

Forms