Teaching people how to write a news story, or any other kind of article, often requires upholding a purist stance. This is especially so when it involves words that have been bastardised.
Some words have been skewed to such an extent that it is impossible to convince those who utter such heresy that they are part of a linguistic conspiracy that would drastically change the way we communicate. Dramatic? Definitely, but someone has to stand up for tradition.
The focus of our irritation today is the word "emormity". How often are we bombarded by phrases such as "he has not really appreciated the enormity of his achievement" for a person who may have won a sporting title for the umpteenth time.
However, enormity, in its original meaning, does NOT mean huge. It is not the noun for enormous, which is actually "enormousness". Enormity means the quality of being outrageous, or wickedness. A phrase such as "we don't understand the enormity of war until we experience it ourselves" would be more appropriate.
Still, as mentioned before, English is an evolving language and enormity has been so ingrained into the lingo as the noun for enormous that even dictionaries appear to have given up the fight. Indeed, I have seen some dictionaries using both definitions for the word enormity.
A big kick in the guts for the traditionalists. But we continue the protest.
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