- The last chapter we had to read was ginormous!
Ginormous
adjective; blending and clipping
Extremely great in size or power Apparent meaning, etymology, and type of word formation: The word means extremely large in size, power, etc. “Ginormous” is formed by clipping and blending “gigantic”, Greek gigantikos, from gigant-, gigas giant, meaning exceeding the usual or expected (as in size, force, or prominence), and the word “enormous” from the Latin enormis, from e, ex out of + norma rule, having roughly the same meaning as “gigantic”. Possible reason used: In this case, “enormous” and “gigantic” are doublets, one from Latin and one from Greek, respectively. “Ginormous” combines the two synonyms to increase the power of this adjective, and emphasize the extreme.
Etymology : [“gi-” clipped from “gigantic,” Greek gigantikos, from gigant-, gigas ‘giant,’ ‘exceeding the usual or expected (as in size, force, or prominence),’ and “-ormous” from “enormous” < Latin enormis, from e, ex ‘out of’ + norma ‘rule’]
Source : friend
Last modified: 10 June 2008