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As a native English speaker, I can't say I've found this to be the case. "Enormity" does tend to be used for dramatic effect, most often on moral issues, but I
by andrewflnr 7y ago
As a native English speaker, I can't say I've found this to be the case. "Enormity" does tend to be used for dramatic effect, most often on moral issues, but I don't think that makes Scott wrong to use it here.
I don't know if I've seen "enormousness" before this thread.
- desert_boi 7y agoSince enormous is from Latin, stems tend to be Latin. `ness` generally only is morphologically productive with Germanic roots, kindness, happiness, etc. When I visited Iceland, I remember a sign in English that said a cliff was insafe [sic]. `in` being a Latin morpheme, and safe being Germanic.
- riffraff 7y agoAh, I never realized in/un would be used with corresponding Latin/Germanic words. But then, it seems there are quite a few un+latin (unreal, unbalanced, unadulterated, uncertain etc), even if I can't think of in+Germanic.
- desert_boi 7y agoGood counter examples. Etymonline will break roots down for you. https://www.etymonline.com/word/unbalanced#etymonline_v_24905 https://www.etymonline.com/word/unbalanced#etymonline_v_2490... Like most things in linguistics, the 'rules' are more a rule of thumb than the mathimatical sort. Germanic pre/post fixes seem like they stick to pre-inkhorn roots better. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkhorn_term https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkhorn_term