- That dinosaur in the museum was ginormous!
Ginormous
adjective; blending and clipping
Extremely large. Ginormous is a word formed by the clipping and blending of the words gigantic and enormous. The overall effect is to create a new adjective with more emphasis than the two words it comes from. The word was probably coined both because it gives the listener a more impressive sense of size and because it is a novel construct that catches the listener off guard.
Etymology : Ginormous. Blending of [Gigantic. Latin 'gigant' (large) + -IC ‘ADJ’] and [Enormous. Latin ‘enorm’ (out of normal) + -OUS ‘ADJ’]
Source : Friend at Rice
Last modified: 10 June 2008