Oh, the Enormity!
Did I miss when the culture decided to give up on 'enormity?' For the record, it isn't a synonym for 'enormousness,' it means 'enormous evil.' Or perhas I should say 'wasn't a synonym.'
When fairly prestigious venues like BBC News start using sentences like:
But the enormity of the task [SETI] means that scientists have been looking for ways to narrow down the search.
it looks like the stuffy ol' prescriptive grammarians have lost another one.
And hark! Merriam Webster includes a tart little essay to smackdown the peaspedants:
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]
Oh, and thanks for using pointy brackets to designate quotes, guys. That made my life much easier. Let's see if LJ's syndication engine calms down if I replace them with square brackets...
comment by i o n:
As a fellow language pedant (or to be more precise ;) as someone for whom precise meanings are often important) I have to say that this can't really matter. Language is in constant use, and meanings change over time. While it's definitely a loss when a word with a useful and (ahem) precise meaning loses that precision, it's somewhat silly to say that this is wrong. Words mean what people use them to mean. Fighting against this is a task that makes "Sisyphian" seem like a stroll in the park.
Also fwiw I never thought "enormity" referred only to "tremendous evil". To me it connotes vastness in a more general sense.