Gigas, antis, masculin. gener. A Giaunte, a man or wontan farre exceeding the common stature of men, of whome as wel holie Scripture, as other credible writers doe make mention. Plutarchus writeth, that Seccorius, a Romayne captaine, being in Mauritania, brake downe the sepulchre of Antheus, and therin was founde the bodie of a man, of snch moustrous greatnesse, that the same captaine moued with a renerent feate, caused the monument to bee reedifyed. Plinie writech, that in Creta, an hill fell downe, & there was found the bodie of a man, in length rlvi, cubits, which was supposed of some to be the bodie of Drion, of some the bodie of Etion. Sabellicus affirmeth, it was reported to him of a credible person, % in the south part of Candie, was found vnder a great tree, the heade of a man as great as a wine vessel called Dolium. How great that vessel is at Venice, where Sabellicus wrote, I tãnot tel: vs it is takÊ to be the greatest vessel, which was sometime a tunne. But he saith, one of the teeth of the head remayneth at Venice, of wõderful greatnesse, by the which they that see it may make some gesse to the greatnesse of the heade. Solinus remembreth, that in the wars which the Romaines had in Cãdie, in a great rage of water, the ground being broken by, there was founde the body of a mã, in length xxxiii. cubites, whche Flactus & Metellns (then captaines of the Romaines hoste) beholding, wondered, whiche they before would not beleene, whe they only heard it reported. And here in England at a monasterie of regular chanous, called IChurch, two myles from the citie of Sarisburie, were sene the bones of a dead man, founde deepe in the ground where they digged stone, which being ioined togither, was in lÊgth xiii. foote and x. ynches. Whereof one of the teeth was in quantitie of a great Walnnt.
Lewis and Short: Latin dictionary
Gĭgās, antis, m., = *gi/gas, a giant; usually in plur.: Gĭgantes, um, m., = *gi/gantes, the fabled sons of Earth and Tartarus, giants with snakes for legs, who stormed the heavens, but were smitten by Jupiter with lightning and buried under Ætna.—Sing., Ov. P. 2, 10, 24; acc. giganta, Stat. Th. 5, 569; Mart. 9, 51, 6: gigantem, Vulg. Sirach, 47, 4.—Plur., Ov. F. 5, 35; id. M. 1, 152; 5, 319; Hor. C. 2, 19, 22; Cic. N. D. 2, 28, 70: gigantum more bellare, id. de Sen. 2, 5; Hyg. Fab. praef. (cf. also Verg. G. 1, 278 sq.); Prop. 3, 5, 39 (dub.; Müll. nocentum, id. 4, 4, 39).—II. Deriv. Gĭgan-tēus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to the giants: bellum, Ov. Tr. 2, 71: sanguis, Verg. Cul. 27: triumphus, Hor. C. 3, 1, 7: tropaea, Ov. F. 5, 555: ora litoris, i. e. at Cumœ, in Campania (where, according to the myth, the giants dwelt in the Phlegræan Fields, and fought with the gods), Prop. 1, 20, 9 (cf. Sil. 12, 143 sq.): genus, Vulg. Num. 13, 34.—2.Transf., gigantic: corpus, Sil. 5, 436.