"Ginormous" Changes To Merriam-Webster

New Arrivals In Dictionary Include "Crunk," "IED," "Speed Dating"

(AP)  It was a ginormous year for the wordsmiths at Merriam-Webster.

Along with embracing the adjective that combines “gigantic” and “enormous,” the dictionary publishers also got into Bollywood, sudoku and speed dating.

But their interest in India's motion picture industry, number puzzles and trendy ways to meet people was all meant for a higher cause: updating the company's collegiate dictionary, which goes on sale this fall with about 100 newly added words.

As always, the yearly list gives meaning to the latest lingo in pop culture, technology and current events.

There's “crunk,” a style of Southern rap music; the abbreviated “DVR,” for digital video recorder; and “IED,” shorthand for the improvised explosive devices that have become common in the war in Iraq.

If it sounds as though Merriam-Webster is dropping its buttoned-down image with too much talk of “smackdowns” (contests in entertainment wrestling) and “telenovelas” (Latin-American soap operas), consider it also is adding “gray literature” (hard-to-get written material) and “microgreen” (a shoot of a standard salad plant.)

No matter how odd some of the words might seem, the dictionary editors say each has the promise of sticking around in the American vocabulary.

“There will be linguistic conservatives who will turn their nose up at a word like `ginormous,”' said John Morse, Merriam-Webster's president. “But it's become a part of our language. It's used by professional writers in mainstream publications. It clearly has staying power.”

One of those naysayers is Allan Metcalf, a professor of English at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., and the executive secretary of the American Dialect Society.

“A new word that stands out and is ostentatious is going to sink like a lead balloon,” he said. “It might enjoy a fringe existence.”

But Merriam-Webster traces ginormous back to 1948, when it appeared in a British dictionary of military slang. And in the past several years, its use has become, well, ginormous.

Visitors to the Springfield-based dictionary publisher's Web site picked “ginormous” as their favorite word that's not in the dictionary in 2005, and Merriam-Webster editors have spotted it in countless newspaper and magazine articles since 2000.

That's essentially the criteria for making it into the collegiate dictionary — if a word shows up often enough in mainstream writing, the editors consider defining it.

But as editor Jim Lowe puts it: “Nobody has to use `ginormous' if they don't want to.”

For the record, he doesn't.

[jay_r_g]

Phil, do you live under a rock?
I suppose you don't ever use any words that have been "invented" in the past...say...150 years?
Get a life man.

It's about time M-W put in some actual words that people use.

[phil-in-fin]

It sounds like a marketing ploy to get everyone to buy a new dictionary.

As an English teacher and professional copy-editor, I have never heard nor read any of any of these "new" words, except in the National Enquirer and other similar trash publications and websites.

Maybe they show up in my son's comic books. If so, than how can Merriam-Webster claim that they are now accepted by mainstream publications?

Sounds like pure bull*** English.

[nothappyatall]

They should have added "zoosexual" to the dictionary.

[bluecatbeads]

Nope, they are not spinning in their graves. They did the same thing.

[lucasnico]

*** it, tuckerndfw doesn't like M-W, so I guess they'll be going out of business.

[tuckerndfw]

Merriam-Webster is not known as a source for factual information. It's definitions are determined by popular usage unrelated to facts.

Examples:

Main Entry: Mo7ses
Pronunciation: 'mO-z&z also -z&s
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin, from Greek MOsEs, from Hebrew MOsheh

: a Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery and at Mt. Sinai delivered the Law establishing God's covenant with them

Source: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary (moses)



Main Entry: Ja7cob
Pronunciation: 'jA-k&b
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin, from Greek IacOb, from Hebrew Ya'aqObh

1 : a son of Isaac and Rebekah, the twin brother of Esau, and heir of God's promise of blessing to Abraham

2 : the ancient Hebrew nation

Source: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary (jacob)

There is no historical evidence to support any of the bible stories, so the proper definitions should be:

"A mythological character from Hebrew legends."

M-W is not a reliable source for accurate information other than how a word is popularly used. Which is quite often contrary to the facts.

[shanev137]

Ginormous is a stupid word that kids use.

[toolmangler-2009]

My father in law will rise from the grave and haunt you dictionary people. Ever since I have known him till his death in 96 "crunk" is what you had done to an engine of any size once you had it running. (I went out and "crunk" the car for you). You people are in "Deep Yogurt", you had better revise the dictionary if you "know whuts good fer ya". :)

[l8c6]

I wonder if Noah Webster and George and Charles Merriam are spinning in their graves?