I like words - as those of you who wade through my posts will know. Carefully used, I can paint an image with words and my readers can see the same image when they read the paragraph. It is what we call communication. Use the wrong words and a disconnect can occur where your readers take away a different meaning than you intended.
So I was interested to be listening to XM radio channel 130 yesterday (POTUS 08 - 24/7 Presidential politics - I was in the car driving - OK?) while Senator Obama was speaking of his Fourth Of July family celebration in Butte, Montana. He suggested that after the fireworks and the family cookout that there would be time to reflect about the enormity of the American accomplishment...
What is wrong with this picture ? Take a moment to pick up your dictionary and look it up (Maybe Senator Obama should have done so)... I'll wait.
"Enormity" means great wickedness as in the enormity of the crime.
Happy Fourth of July, Senator.
2 comments:
Perhaps he was talking about our accomplishments in Iraq?
Apparently I was too quick with my flippant comment.
Like you, I had always understood that enormity was appropriately applied only to evil (probably because we went to the same school).
Looking further this morning, I find the following at Merriam-Webster online:
usage Enormity, some people insist, is improperly used to denote large size. They insist on enormousness for this meaning, and would limit enormity to the meaning “great wickedness.” Those who urge such a limitation may not recognize the subtlety with which enormity is actually used. It regularly denotes a considerable departure from the expected or normal - "they awakened; they sat up; and then the enormity of their situation burst upon them. “How did the fire start?” — John Steinbeck.
When used to denote large size, either literal or figurative, it usually suggests something so large as to seem overwhelming "no intermediate zone of study. Either the enormity of the desert or the sight of a tiny flower — Paul Theroux" "the enormity of the task of teachers in slum schools — J. B. Conant" and may even be used to suggest both great size and deviation from morality "the enormity of existing stockpiles of atomic weapons — New Republic". It can also emphasize the momentousness of what has happened "the sombre enormity of the Russian Revolution — George Steiner" or of its consequences "perceived as no one in the family could the enormity of the misfortune — E. L. Doctorow".
Post a Comment