# "Embiggen" is now a perfectly cromulent word **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 6, 2018, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105 "2018-03-06T08:43:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/21 "2023-10-01T03:10:27Z")
From the article: > “Cromulent,” meanwhile, has already enjoyed legitimacy in the [Oxford English Dictionary](https://www.oed.com/dictionary/cromulent_adj) and [Dictionary.com.](https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cromulent) ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/22 "2023-10-01T03:33:33Z")
I invented a compression scheme to reduce a stream of data bytes (in a very specific format) to the smallest possible size. Naturally the compression function is bebigulate() and the expansion function is rebigualate(). ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2023, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/23 "2023-10-01T14:57:32Z")
Odd, usually the blood gets off at the second floor. ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2023, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/24 "2023-10-17T17:59:43Z")
> [@Lightray](#): > > crapulence is attested to from the [1650s](http://www.dictionary.com/browse/crapulence). Thank you, I was just about to post that “crapulent” and “crapulence” are real words that have been around for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_the_turtle/32/2926_2.png) [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_the_Turtle)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2023, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/25 "2023-10-17T20:48:28Z")
How about “craptacular”? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2023, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/26 "2023-10-17T21:02:47Z")
I don’t find ‘embiggen’ all that artful, yet easily understandable, far better than all the words which sound like someone just made them up. ‘Cromulent’ is an important word, it expresses the more nuanced and intricate concept of the essence of words and how we understand them. [From the very first use of the word](https://youtu.be/FcxsgZxqnEg?si=7cqKU6Hj1NPy_PKQ&t=65) it’s meaning was clear and understood by people. I doubt anything now considered AI could work that out on it’s own. ---
**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/27 "2023-10-18T02:43:30Z")
[Indecorous Embiggenment - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/indecorous-embiggenment/708368) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2023, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/28 "2023-10-18T02:47:30Z")
> [@Fear\_the\_Turtle](#): > > How about “craptacular”? That only applies to outdoor Xmas decorations. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2023, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/29 "2023-10-19T17:48:02Z")
Twenty volumes of _The Oxford English Dictionary_ From wiki: > Following each definition are several brief illustrating quotations presented in chronological order from the earliest ascertainable use of the word in that sense to the last ascertainable use for an obsolete sense, to indicate both its life span and the time since its desuetude, or to a relatively recent use for current ones. > desuetude has not yet made it into my under-the-bridge Oxford Dictionary ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2023, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/30 "2023-10-19T18:01:54Z")
Desuetude is a great word! I can’t wait to use it in a sentence. Hang on… 🤨 ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2023, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/31 "2023-10-19T18:35:02Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I don’t find ‘embiggen’ all that artful It just uses existing word forming elements em- and -en around a simple word “big”, it’s basically embolden but with big instead of bold. > [@TriPolar](#): > > ‘Cromulent’ is an important word, it expresses the more nuanced and intricate concept of the essence of words and how we understand them. [From the very first use of the word](https://youtu.be/FcxsgZxqnEg?si=7cqKU6Hj1NPy_PKQ&t=65) it’s meaning was clear and understood by people. It’s amazing that we were able to understand this nonsense word via context, giving it a unique, useful, distinction from existing words, through a single 5 word phrase on a TV show that made no effort to tell us what the word meant. ---
**Author:** ![EnolaStraight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@EnolaStraight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EnolaStraight)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2023, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/32 "2023-10-19T20:15:03Z")
I could’ve _sworn_ “cromulent” was born in this classic. [(1) Blackadder Johnson’s Dictionary - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuDquo76490) ---
**Author:** ![Eclipse\_Chaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Eclipse\_Chaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eclipse_Chaser)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2023, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/33 "2023-10-21T15:01:17Z")
What about “smallify”? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2023, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105/34 "2023-10-21T15:57:51Z")
Goes back at least to 1969. > **[Danny Dunn and the Smallifying Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Dunn_and_the_Smallifying_Machine)** > > Danny Dunn and the Smallifying Machine is the eleventh novel in the Danny Dunn series of juvenile science fiction/adventure books written by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams. The book was first published in 1969. > Professor Bullfinch has created a machine for the government which will shrink objects and be used for spying. When Danny sneaks into the lab, he and his friends discover the machine and try to use it for a problem they have been dealing with at school. > McGraw-Hill > MacDonald and Jan... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/embiggen-is-now-a-perfectly-cromulent-word/810105.md?page=1)