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libertangoIn this entry, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
via_solis misuses the word "enormity", in reference to the Edmund Fitzgerald. Normally I would just grind my teeth and move on, but in the comments, they take Alanis Morissette to task for her well-known misuse of the word "ironic". I tried to post the following comment:
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Item the first: You may want to review John 8:7.
Item the second, from my copy of the Oxford Universal Dictionary (basically a shorter OED without as many citations): "Enormity: 1475 [...] 1. Deviation from a normal standard or type; esp. from moral or legal rectitude. In later use: Monstrous wickedness. 1538. 2. That which is abnormal; an irregularity; a crime; in later use, a monstrous offence 1475."
So, one may speak of the enormity of the Shoah. But the word is not generally a synonym for, "like, rilly, rilly big."
*^*^*^*
Note that I said, "tried", though. That's because they apparently feel themselves so above criticism they've turned off comments from LJ'ers not "friends".
And isn't that ironic.
Don't they think?
via_solis misuses the word "enormity", in reference to the Edmund Fitzgerald. Normally I would just grind my teeth and move on, but in the comments, they take Alanis Morissette to task for her well-known misuse of the word "ironic". I tried to post the following comment:*^*^*^*
Item the first: You may want to review John 8:7.
Item the second, from my copy of the Oxford Universal Dictionary (basically a shorter OED without as many citations): "Enormity: 1475 [...] 1. Deviation from a normal standard or type; esp. from moral or legal rectitude. In later use: Monstrous wickedness. 1538. 2. That which is abnormal; an irregularity; a crime; in later use, a monstrous offence 1475."
So, one may speak of the enormity of the Shoah. But the word is not generally a synonym for, "like, rilly, rilly big."
*^*^*^*
Note that I said, "tried", though. That's because they apparently feel themselves so above criticism they've turned off comments from LJ'ers not "friends".
And isn't that ironic.
Don't they think?
