Not Even Colossal...It's Ginormous!

Just for the record, any squid that measures 26 feet long and 3 feet wide can be called anything it wants to...just like the 500-lb. gorilla. Such a critter washed ashore in Hobart, Australia, the other day and conjured up Jules Verne-like recollections. Imagine something as long as a bus in your bathtub! Anyway, this is not the largest colossal inkwell found lately. In February, one was caught which weighed in at a hefty half-ton! Calimari, anyone? (Actually, giant squid taste terrible because of their high amonia content which aids in buoyancy). However, the subject today is not squid (colossal or otherwise); it is about the 100 or so new words being added to the Merriam-Webster New Collegiate Dictionary, of which "ginormous" is the one most favored in an online poll. For the record, it beat out such everyday words as "smackdown," "gray literature" (reading matter which is hard to find), and "telenovella" (that Spanish-speaking soap opera that's always on TV). Ginormous is, obviously, a combination of "giant" and "enormous." It has become accepted parlance so the dictionary folks have added it to the latest edition. Will it be in the Scripp's Spelling Bee on ESPN? Who knows? I love the word "colossal'" and to see it replaced is difficult to accept. What's next? The Ginormous of Rhodes as one of the wonders of the ancient world? The Ginormous Man as a B movie? The New York or San Francisco Ginormals? I, for one, have never been noted as conservative, but adulterating a language that is already among the most difficult to learn seems like some kind of plot. We want immigrants to speak English, and then we coin terms like "ginormous." That's cold...not in a temperature way, but...well, you know.
And as long as we're discussing this word, the current parlance purveyors aren't even credited with coining the term. Webster's folks indicate that the word was included as far back as 1948 when it was discovered as British military slang.
Thus, new words come in everyday as they become common in usage. Webster's feel obliged to include them in order to stay current. That's why I don't talk to people anymore. I can't understand what they're talking about. I just chill with my iPod listening to crunk most of the time.