I’ve seen the term “prodigal son” used in other ways before, but it’s pretty much always “the prodigal son returns”. I’ve tried to Google it before and that has only confused me more honestly.
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First, you need to understand what prodigal means. Prodigal means to spend extravagantly and wastefully.
Second, you need to know the origin of the phrase. It’s from a Bible parable, a parable being a story told to illustrate a moral lesson. The short version of the story is this:
A wealthy man has two sons. The younger of the two asks for his inheritance now (rather than wait for his father to die) so his father divides his estate between the two and gives each son their share. The younger son moves to another country where he spends his money lavishly (prodigally). While there a great famine strikes and he runs out of money. He is forced to take a very lowly job (swine herder) just to survive. Thinking of home, the younger son recalls that even his fathers servants live better than he does now, so he decides to return home and beg for a job there.
When the younger son returns home his father is overjoyed, and has a big party. The older son, who has been responsible this whole time is upset. “Why did you never celebrate me?” The father replies that all he has now will someday go to the older son, but its as if the younger son returned from the dead.
The basic gist is that people who are faithful are doing the right thing and will be rewarded, but people who have strayed and found their way home should be celebrated too because they are no longer lost.
Outside the story the phrase is often used to describe someone who goes away with an arrogant attitude and comes back having been humbled by their circumstances.
For example you have a coworker who makes a big deal about quitting for a supposedly better job at another company, only to get laid off and have to come back begging for their old job.
The responses you’re seeing here are right, but I will add that sometimes people use it as a joke, as banter with someone they haven’t seen in a long time. Akin to how people use “well, look what the cat dragged in!” with a smile toward an old friend.
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Actual definition: a person who leaves home and behaves recklessly, but later makes a repentant return.
It’s a parable in the Bible to teach a lesson. A wealthy man had two sons. When they came of age, one son insisted that the father sell half their farm to give him his inheritance while he was young.
The father tried to reason with him, but he insisted that this is what he wanted, so the father did that.
That son went to the big city, where he tried to invest the money, while he was also drinking and gambling, while partying with any women.
The other son stayed on the farm and helped the father with the crops.
The first son became broke, and was living in the street with no job and no food. One cold night he reasoned it would be better to live in his father’s barn and eat with the pigs, so he returns home to beg his fathers forgiveness.
When the father sees him he is overjoyed and sets him at their table and brings a good meal to him.
Later the son who stayed was unhappy, and the father asked him why. He said that he stayed and helped eith the farm, but the father is celebrating the son who wasted his inheritance.
The father said that the prodigal son was lost and feared dead, but he has returned to the safety of the family.
What does prodigal even mean?
One minor point about the word meaning here. I’ve seen sources that treat “prodigal” as meaning “one who leaves,” since that’s what the prodigal son does in the parable. (E.g., in the Sandman comic, one of the Endless has left and is only referred to as The Prodigal for a while.)
In the original parable, though, the son left and then spent his money wastefully. It’s that wastefulness that earned him the descriptor “prodigal.” Per that original meaning, it shouldn’t be applied to someone who just leaves, but that’s language change for you.
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