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jesus christ even i stopped saying ginormous back in 2000
Crunk shoulda been a word by that time too iirc.
I guess the kiddies are saying crunk at record pace still.
A 'Ginormous' Change for Dictionary
By ADAM GORLICK,AP
Posted: 2007-07-11 12:42:28
Filed Under: Nation
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (July 10) - 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.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/a-ginor...00010000000001
jesus christ even i stopped saying ginormous back in 2000
Crunk shoulda been a word by that time too iirc.
I guess the kiddies are saying crunk at record pace still.
What does crunk mean? I know Ginormous is Gigantic and Enormous put together.
Just watch a Lil' Jon video and you'll figure out what crunk means.
Crunk was used in victoria as another word for "cool" or "sweet", but unlike those words could also be used as a verb without changing its spelling.
"Yeeeah, dat party gonbe crunk"
"Yeeeah, we gon crunk dat party up"
Get it?
A lot of the people I work with, 20-something college students use crunk in everyday language, not even when talking about parties...like "Man that's a crunk outfit." I love the word ginourmous all the time...I love it.
Crunk is just a stupid, lame-ass word.
Ginormous is cool.
I'm still waiting for "Fantaboulus" to make it to the dictionary.
Although, I thought "ginormous" was always a *word* ... I've used if for years.
So did I, I'm surprised it's considered new.
Although, I thought "ginormous" was always a *word* ... I've used if for years.
How about "Fantabulous"?
I got it from Rachel Ray.
I got it from Rachel Ray.[/QUOTE
PW watching R. Ray
I never use it. I refuse... even if it is in the dictionary.
Fatabulous is an amazing word. I must incorporate it in my vocabulary. Another one I use often is "chilax." I use it often with my students when they get really obnxious. The first time they heard it they were shocked, but now they use it too.
My daughter says that all the time and it drives me nuts. That, and "Are you serial?!?"
My daughter says that all the time and it drives me nuts. That, and "Are you serial?!?"
Serial? I will have to start using that with my 1st-5th grades. That's awesome. Too bad it's so late in the summer.
Some of my co-workers hadn't even heard "chilax." Maybe it's a south Texas thing versus a North Texas thing.
both words are stupid....but whatever.
Dude, she's hot and she cooks.I got it from Rachel Ray.[/QUOTE
PW watching R. Ray
What better way to spend 30 minutes of your time.
I want to tap that.
I don't know how I feel about the yearly addition of trendy, made-up terms to the dictionary.
On the one hand, I can see the value in do enting the words phrases that become a part of our daily language. But on the other hand, there is already a huge segment of the population that is completely ignorant of proper language and grammar (and it is largely a generational divide -- English just isn't taught the way it used to be) and I worry that legitimizing words like "crunk" and" "ginormous" just exacerbates that problem.
Actually I'm hoping it causes a sort of reverse psychology that makes words like "crunk" disappear from everyday language. I mean how cool is a word, really, if it's in the dictionary? That's so a lame.
Chilax.
agreed. i'm throwing chilax in there too. i've never heard it, but i hate it. makes no doi sound not too bad.
Southern rap music, crunk, crap + junk ?
crunk is crazy drunk so why the would the kiddies be using it
I'm submitting "splendiferous" for 2008 myself...
Now THAT's the truth...
how ridiculous.
Fear of a Black Planet
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