Now that Merriam-Webster has officially proclaimed that ‘ginormous’ is a word, I have even less regard for their dictionary. ‘Ginormous’ is a horrible debacle as far as my ears are concerned. It also makes me think of ‘vagina,’ but I know I am overly sensitive to the V word. I don’t even like girls named Regina.
Anyway, what next, ‘kajillion?’ That one bothers me as well, but ‘eleventy billion’ is okay, because it’s so cute.
Allan Metcalf, a professor of English at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Ill., and the executive secretary of the American Dialect Society, doesn’t like ‘ginormous.’ Here’s what he said about it:
“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.”
Isn’t that an awful sentence?! Why is this guy on the board of the American Dialect Society? No wonder everything is screwed up.
What do you think of ‘squillion’? I use it all the time. Not as cute a ‘eleventy billion’ but better than ‘kajillion’, no?
Squillion is good, I like it! Please continue using it.