prodigul son

[hannoon]

what is the meaning of prodigul son?

[Quizmonster]

'Prodigal' means wasteful. The prodigal son is the subject of a story in the Bible, in which the spendthrift son, who has abandoned home to enjoy himself leaving his brother to work and help his parents, eventually returns. His father welcomes him with open arms and - when the brother complains - the father explains that it is wonderful when a "lost sheep" comes back into the flock.
So, a prodigal son is one like that...wasteful and inconsiderate.

[sunnyside]

I think in the Biblical sense, Prodigal means, "Once Lost but Now Found".

With a bit more detail, the story (a parable told by Jesus) is about two sons, one who decides to sell his inheritance and leaves the family to live wildly. He squanders it all and finds himself poor and destitute. There's also a famine in the land. He gets a job feeding pigs to survive but can't even afford food-the pigs that he is hired to feed eat better than he. He realizes that he could go home and work for his father as a slave and be better off. He humbles himself and heads home apologizing for what he'd done. The father sees him coming was overjoyed because he thought he'd never see him again. He orders the other son and servants to prepare a feast to celebrate. The other son complains to his father because he's stayed by his father's side and worked all along, yet has never been given such a party. The father explains to the jealous son that he has never been lost, but a son lost but then found is cause to celebrate. This story is symbol of what it means when someone becomes a Christian and accepts Jesus as their Savior. He creates them but they are lost to him until they acknowledge and accept him and then He becomes their Father/Savior, no matter what has happened before. So again, Biblically it means first Lost but then Found.

[Peter Pedant]

Hanoon, the above two answers are somewhat confusing. I detect from your name that your first language may not be English.

In fact the two answers are a good example of how English changes and mutates. There is no doubt that prodigal means wasteful, in the sense of using a lot and wasting it. Prodigious is a related word and means 'a lot. or great amount' (without out the wasting sense)

However prodigal is often associated with the Bible story related above and may carry the meaning of 'once lost and now found'. So over the years the meaning has changed.

I cant think of a good example in Arabic - ta'aban, I suppose - meaning both tired and ill. This is said to be because in a hot country when you're ill, you're always fatigued....