Extremely large, impressive, or significant; used as an intensifier meaning 'very' or 'extremely.'
From Italian 'mondo' meaning world, popularized in American slang in the 1960s through surfer culture and reinforced by exploitation films like 'Mondo Cane.' The sense evolved from 'worldly' to 'huge.'
This Italian import shows how pop culture can transform a simple word meaning 'world' into an enthusiastic intensifier. Its journey from Italian geography textbooks to California surf slang illustrates language's playful adaptability.
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