M-W vs. Grant Barrett on "ginormous"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

Via the "Boing Boing" blog:

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http://www.boingboing.net/2005/05/18/words_not_in_the_dic.html

Words not in the dictionary

Merriam-Webster asked online users to submit words that aren't in the
dictionary but perhaps should be. The editors then came up with a Top 10
list of frequently submitted words. From the Associated Press:

First place went to "ginormous" -- bigger than gigantic and bigger than
enormous -- followed by "confuzzled" for confused and puzzled
simultaneously, and "whoot," an exclamation of joy. A "lingweenie" -- a
person incapable of making up new words -- placed 10th.

Link
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/05/17/new.words.ap/index.html?section=cnn_offbeat

UPDATE: Grant Barrett, editor of the excellent Double-Tongued Word Wrester
site and a lexicographer for Oxford University Press, writes:

As everyone who as Mac OS X 10.4 can find out, "ginormous" is indeed in
the dictionary, or rather, in "a" dictionary, the second edition of the
New Oxford American Dictionary that is included with the new operating
system. If my good colleagues at Merriam-Webster want headwords they need
to add to the 12th edition of their college dictionary (the current 11th
edition is already a fine book), I can send them a list. ; )
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