I can see Nero Wolfe tearing out the pages and feeding them into the fire. Thanks to Jeff Meyerson for the link.
Story - New Dictionary Includes 'Ginormous' - AOL News
Story - New Dictionary Includes 'Ginormous' - AOL News
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (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.
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5 comments:
I edited and wrote a headline for that story at work last night! I was surprised it took Bollywood so long to make it into Merriam-Webster's. And ginormous is a silly word, no matter how old its pedigree.
Incidentally, the article's statemnt about Merriam-Webster's "buttoned-down image" is nonsense, at least as applied to the people who work there. i spent two days with them about twenty years ago for a series of articles, and they are as funny, sharp, and witty as one would of expect of people who spend their days scouring media of every kind for new words.
On the other hand, the insistence in the Tenth Collegiate that backseat as a noun is one word is flat-out wrong.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I can get behind "Bollywood." I have a feeling Nero Wolfe couldn't.
Yes, a man who once doubled a client's fee for using contact as a verb would likely be sent into apoplexy by the annual Merriam-Webster updates.
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Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
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