Columnist Barry Saunders finds fault with the word ginormous and wishes editors would not allow such coinages into the pages of dictionaries. John McIntyre, who writes You Don't Say at baltimoresun.com, explains that lexicographers are not legislators. They describe what is going on with language; they do not put a stamp of approval on coinages merely by adding them to the dictionary.
Of course, I don't recommend using "ginormous" in a news story or in an academic paper. The New Oxford American Dictionary's entry for "ginormous" notes that it is "informal, humorous." That's guidance that writers can heed. And if you are on a job interview, it might be best to describe your capacity for hard work with a more formal word -- enormous or boundless, perhaps.
We have this man to thank when we spell the word color instead of colour. Yale University will celebrate Noah Webster this week on the 250th anniversary of his birth. Webster wrote the first comprehensive dictionary of the American language. He was born Oct. 16, 1758, in Hartford, Conn., and became a teacher after he was graduated from Yale. One story I read about him called him an "earnest pedant." Good for him!
