That's freakin' huge!

My oldest is not a morning person. So when she starts a conversation in the car at 7 a.m., I jump right on board.

“That new Target?”

“Yeah?”

“The last time I was there it was a hole in the ground, they had just started building.”

“It has been open, a couple months. “

“I pulled up and like WOW! It’s ginormous!”

“Ginormous?”

"It’s a combination of gigantic and enormous."

"Which is bigger?"

"It is gigantic, then enormous, then ginormous."

"So ginormous is the biggest?"

"Yeah."

"What about 'titanic'?"

She thought for a moment, and then said:

"Titanic is bigger than both gigantic and enormous, but not ginormous."

"So why wouldn’t you use a combination of titanic and enormous, 'tinormus.'"

"Because that sounds stupid, besides it is a building not a ship. Titanic works only for boats."

"Ah, so ginormous is simply a land measurement."

"Yes."


I left her at the bus stop and she went to work. I ran directly to the source. In generations past, the source could have been a religious leader, a parent, a teacher even a librarian. For me the source is Google.

I entered "ginormous."

Here is what I found. At http://www.unwords.com/unword/ginormous.html, the Unword Dictionary says:

Definition of ginormous :.
(jī-nôr'm s)
1. 1. (adj.) Used to describe something so large that it is additively gigantic and enormous.

Origins: The contraction of gigantic or giant and enormous. This word is very close to acceptance into today's vocabulary.

Example: "Millicent, that 32 pound cat of yours is ginormous!" "That's freakin' huge! That's ginormous!"

Freakin’! I know what freakin’ means but I needed the Unword Dictionary’s definition.

And guess what? They don’t have one. How can you use a word in a definition that doesn’t exist in your own dictionary? I found myself slowly slipping into the pit of confusion that makes up most of my waking hours. So I left the Unword Dictionary and returned to the Google home page where I once again saw my search for Ginormus, Where a second glance revealed this:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/2007-07-10-dictionary-new-words_N.htm

It seems that in 2007, Merriam-Webster, added Ginormus to their collegiate dictionary.

And the here is where my head started pounding.

gi·nor·mous
\jī-nor-ms\
Function: adjective
Etymology: gigantic + enormous
Date: circa 1948
: extremely large : humongous


1948? 1948! Come on! And what about humongous? How is ginormus bigger than humongous?

These are now the tasks infront of me.

1. Find the 1948 birthplace of ginormous;
2. Find humongous’ place in the “big word” list;
3. Find a dictionary that has "freakin’"

because Merriam Webster did not have it either. It did have freaking and I'm sure its the same thing! But still I need freakin'!

The worst thing about this is that when my daughter checks in to this blog, she will say, "See, I told ya."