ginormous joins the dictionary

[TrentinaNE]

I think I first recall hearing the word ginormous in the movie Elf, and I thought it was very cute and clever melding of gigantic + enormous. Now that it's been officially added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it's lost some luster for me. It still sounds very whimsical, and I don't want to see it routinely showing up serious contexts in, say, the New York Times.

Elisabetta

P.S. Ginormous shows up in only 8 WRF posts.

 

[Whodunit]

And what do you want us to do, please?

 

[tom_in_bahia]

I remember hearing this combination at least as early as highschool, so for me that's going back to 1996. I had friends who would use it sporadically in college, mostly females. In my opinion, it's been a word I've usually associated with younger kids, like "gazillion" or "bajillion" to describe an unspecified, but very large quantity; or "teenie" as a variant of tiny.

 

[TrentinaNE]

And what do you want us to do, please?

Well, as part of the forum title is "history of languages," I'm commenting on the history of adding words to English.

Elisabetta