The Language Perfectionist: Solving an Enormous Problem

By Don Hauptman  
Consider the following, all found via an Internet search:

• "My aim is to win an Olympic gold," says the 17-year-old Saina Nehwal. But the enormity of the task sinks in as she...

• Headline: [Candidate Greg] Ballard Grapples With Enormity of Mayoral Win

• When does the enormity of a favor cross the line?

In all these cases, enormity is being used to refer to something large. Not correct. The word means a great evil, wickedness, or atrocity, as in "the enormity of Nazism."

This misuse is so common that the distinction has become blurred. And if you look hard enough, you can find authorities and dictionaries that sanction the use of enormity to mean largeness.

But as a prescriptivist, my advice is to respect the distinction. You always want your writing to be clear, precise, and unambiguous. So use enormity only to refer to a monstrous evil. In all other cases, choose another word. You have many options: enormousness, greatness, immensity, magnitude, vastness.

[Ed Note: Don Hauptman was a direct-response copywriter for more than 30 years. For his direct-mail subscription packages, he won The Newsletter on Newsletters promotion award for 10 years. He also writes about the English language and has worked on a humorous new book in that genre.] __________________________________________________
This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2280, 02-16-08], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.