ginormous

[Scot LaFaive]

I enjoy the blend "ginormous." I think it is quite pleasing to the ear,
besides being a clever little blend.

Scot, promoter of a million synonyms


>From: Robert Hartwell Fiske <Vocabula at AOL.COM>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: ginormous
>Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:55:28 EDT
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Robert Hartwell Fiske <Vocabula at AOL.COM>
>Subject:      ginormous
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Merriam-Webster's has added nearly one hundred new words to the 2006 update
>of the eleventh edition of its Collegiate Dictionary. Among them is the
>word
>ginormous, a synonym of the equally loathsome, equally silly  humongous.
>Combining "gigantic" and "enormous," ginormous is a word for which we
>already have a great many synonyms. It's easy to create synonyms of readily
>understandable concepts like largeness.
>Better than new, ill-defined words for simple concepts like largeness would
>be new words for less easily understood or less often encountered concepts
>like  bravery or justice or truth. Having more synonyms of words such as
>these
>may,  over time, affect people's behavior and increase the occurrence of
>bravery, the  spread of justice, or the value of truth.
>Ginormous is a silly slang term that does nothing to improve our
>understanding of ourselves or our world. What's more, some people, simple
>though  the
>concept of large should be, apparently have trouble understanding the word:
>* Those looking through the new edition of Merriam-Webster's dictionary
>will
>have a ginormous list of new words to learn.
>* It was a ginormous year for the wordsmiths at Merriam-Webster.
>* She gave her mom, Kathy, a ginormous hug before the hotel  entrepreneurs
>sped off to their Bel-Air mansion for some quality time together.
>* But I have one ginormous point to add.
>
>Ask Fiske
>_www.askfiske.com_ (http://www.askfiske.com)
>
>
>
>Robert Hartwell Fiske
>Editor and Publisher
>The Vocabula  Review
>_www.vocabula.com_ (http://www.vocabula.com/)
>
>
>
>
>
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