colossus

colossus
a) A statue of gigantic size. The name was especially applied to certain famous statues in antiquity, as the Colossus of Nero in Rome and the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

[“]The Empire has always been a realm of colossal resources. They’ve calculated everything in planets, in stellar systems, in whole sectors of the Galaxy. Their generators are gigantic because they thought in gigantic fashion. [¶…¶…] To supply light and heat to a city, they have motors six stories<! [sic] high — I saw them — where ours could fit into this room. And when I told one of their atomic specialists that a lead container the size of a walnut contained an atomic generator, he almost choked with indignation on the spot. [¶] Why, they don’t even understand their own colossi any<! page break longer. The machines work from generation to generation automatically, and the caretakers are a hereditary caste who would be helpless if a single D-tube in all that vast structure burnt out.[”]

b) Any creature or thing of gigantic size.

⁽¹⁾ What I love about the colossi is that they actually feel colossal : they move ponderously around, sending out tremours with each step; their ancient husks richly detailed with dirt and plant life. They really do feel like something that has been sleeping in the ground for so long they’ve almost become part of the landscape, now rudely awoken and sleepily pawing at you, like you’re an unusually aggressive snooze button.


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  • Colossus — Una computadora Colossus Mark II. El panel inclinado de la izquierda se usaba para establecer el número de patrones de pines de Lorenz. La cinta transportadora de papel está en la derecha. Ubicación Gran Bretaña …   Wikipedia Español

  • Colossus — Mark II Colossi waren frühe Computer, die in England während des Zweiten Weltkriegs speziell zur Dechiffrierung von geheimen Nachrichten des deutschen Militärs gebaut wurden. Mit ihrer Hilfe wurde ab 1943 in Bletchley Park die Entzifferung der… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Colossus — Co*los sus, n.; pl. L. {Colossi}, E. {Colossuses}. [L., fr. Gr. ?.] 1. A statue of gigantic size. The name was especially applied to certain famous statues in antiquity, as the Colossus of Nero in Rome, the Colossus of Apollo at Rhodes. [1913… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Colossus — es el nombre de una serie de computadoras electrónicas utilizadas durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial para romper códigos criptográficos. Inventada y alojada cerca de Londres en Bletchley Park. Aunque las computadoras colossus procedían de otras… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • colossus — gigantic statue, late 14c., from L. colossus a statue larger than life, from Gk. kolossos gigantic statue, of unknown origin, used by Herodotus of giant Egyptian statues, and used by Romans of the bronze Apollo at the entrance to the harbor of… …   Etymology dictionary

  • Colossus — (gr.), s. Koloß; die in Rom errichteten Colossi, z.B. der C, Neronis, Domitiani etc., s. u. Rom (a. Geogr.) …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • colossus — [n] giant thing behemoth, Cyclops, Gargantua, giant, Godzilla, Goliath, Hercules, leviathan, mammoth, Samson, titan; concept 424 …   New thesaurus

  • colossus — ► NOUN (pl. colossi or colossuses) ▪ a person or thing of enormous size, in particular a statue that is much bigger than life size. ORIGIN Latin, from Greek kolossos …   English terms dictionary

  • colossus — [kə läs′əs] n. pl. for 1 & 3 colossi [kə läs′ī΄] or colossuses [ME < L < Gr kolossos] 1. a gigantic statue 2. [C ] the gigantic statue of Apollo set at the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes c. 280 B.C. and included among the Seven Wonders of …   English World dictionary

  • Colossus — The original meaning of the word colossus is an exceptionally large statue. Colossus may refer to: Contents 1 Statues 2 Media 3 Computing …   Wikipedia

  • Colossus — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Colossus (homonymie). Colossus Personnage de fiction apparaissant dans …   Wikipédia en Français

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