In Which I Embiggen the Occurrence of a Neologism.
13/08/2014
Incidentally, this is a CD I own, it features the well-known piano-playing Norah Jones, who annoys me on it by being able to play electric guitar better than I can in several styles, including, on "Down By The River", a nicely loose, jagged lead that captures Neil Young's style pretty well. More at AllMusic here.
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The other day I was visiting, as I frequently do, the website AllMusic, and I noticed that when the mouse was hovered over a CD or LP cover illustration, there appeared the legend "click to embiggen".
I was pleased to find such a playful use of language at a relatively serious site, but thought little more of it. However, today it came up at work in conversation, and I decided I should look the word up. It appears it originated in modern usage nearly twenty years ago : - "The word’s current popularity follows its deployment as an intentionally ungainly form by television writer David X. Cohen for The Simpsons episode “Lisa the Iconoclast” in 1996." Wiktionary. I was surprised that a new word could escape my attention for so long, but then again, I haven't seen a lot of The Simpsons. The word searched on Google gets "About 771,000 results (0.18 seconds)". It appears to be well on it's way to general usage and legitimacy. |
Postscript 08/10/2020
Although this word may have "originated in modern usage nearly twenty years ago, its earliest known appearance was far earlier. At the site Wiktionary it is said "The verb's first recorded use is in an 1884 edition of the British journal Notes and Queries: A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, General Readers, Etc. by C. A. Ward".