The subhead of a piece that appeared on the New York Times Web site today: "A ginormous public lands bill failed to pass the House, and is stalled." Ginormous? Really I thought ginormous was a silly combination of gigantic and enormous a clever tween somewhere in Westchester or Orange counties thought up a few years ago that just sort of caught on. I was surprised to see it caught on with The New York Times, though - in fact, a quick search shows that it's been used at least 1,870 times in the Times. Apparently, I was under a ginormous misimpression about ginormous; the Merriam-Webster dictionary says the word dates to 1948 (though it does not specify its first use). Meaning "extremely large," ginormous is also what's known, according to the Times itself, as a neologism, or a newly invented word. I know, there's a contradiction here: "newly invented" yet around since 1948? I can't explain it. I'm just glad to know I can use it without sounding like a 13-year-old girl.
« Short 'n' Tweet | Main | Today's Read & Other Stuff - Diddy or Didn't He? »
March 12, 2009
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c9cfa53ef0112796362c428a4
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Today's Read & Other Stuff - Ginormous:
Comments
The comments to this entry are closed.
Why "Word Wise"?
- When I started to e-mail out a weekly writing tip to my Chicago colleagues at Edelman in 2002, little did I know how quickly how many people outside my office would start to request it. But word spread, as word is wont to do, and in 2006 the e-mail evolved into this blog. The tips, which are about grammar, usage and style, have a dual purpose – to remind my colleagues in PR of the power of the written word and, more generally, to support and perpetuate clear, concise, creative, honest, lively, stylish, compelling writing everywhere. In 2009 I started to add commentary about and links to stories and other blog posts related to the media, marketing, writing and, sometimes, just interesting stuff. For some reason, I also started Twittering (at SantowDan).
When I lived in England in 1985, all the kids used "gynormous" and I remember seeing it in books with that spelling. So when I started hearing it a year or two ago, I just figured it was an import.
Posted by: Chris Goldrick | April 02, 2009 at 06:58 AM