We wish all our readers a peaceful and joyous new year!

This week’s theme
Words coined in comic strips and cartoons

This week’s words
skunkworks
sad sack
embiggen
Lower Slobbovia
cromulent

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(em-BIG-uhn)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To make larger.

ETYMOLOGY:

From em- (to cause to be in) + big (large) + -en (verbal suffix), formed on the pattern of enliven. Earliest documented use: 1884.

NOTES:

The word was popularized by writer Dan Greaney when he independently coined it in the television show The Simpsons. In the episode, “Lisa the Iconoclast”, aired in 1996, the founder of Springfield founder Jebediah Springfield inspires his fellow cityfolks by declaring “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.”

The earliest recorded use of the word is from 1884 which seems to be self-referential:
“Are there not, however, barbarous verbs in all languages? ... but the people magnified them, to make great or embiggen, if we may invent an English parallel as ugly.” (Notes and Queries)

USAGE:

“The podcast [Stretch Marks] is all about the things that stretch us as we enter and stumble through parenthood, the marks the stretches leave, the embiggening of ourselves (and our bellies).”
Fiona McCann; Advice as Welcome as a Full Night’s Sleep; Irish Times (Dublin); Aug 26, 2023.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: