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Today's Word "Brobdingnagian"

Of extraordinary size on

Published in Vocabulary

Brobdingnagian \brob-ding-NAG-ee-uhn\ (adjective) - Of extraordinary size; gigantic; enormous.

"Some men set out to climb Mount Everest. Ammon Shea set out to read the Oxford English Dictionary full time, from cover to cover. Or rather covers to covers, his recent job as a furniture mover providing handy preparation for hoisting its 20 hefty volumes. And why did Shea fix his sights on this Brobdingnagian challenge - because it was there? 'I have read the OED,' he says, 'so that you don't have to.' -- Amanda Heller, 'Short Takes'

 

Brobdingnagian is from Brobdingnag, a country of giants in Swift's Gulliver's Travels.


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