Chrysti The Wordsmith: Big Words - 1

Greetings I'm Christie the wordsmith. The little word big is a broadly serviceable adjective meaning of considerable size or large solidly ensconced in the English language. Big made its printed debut in the year thirteen hundred according to the Oxford English Dictionary. We're always at perfect liberty to employ the word big in reference to anything of significant proportion but why not in times of need. Call on its more colorful synonyms such playful polysyllables as colossal. But he myth mammoth gigantic enormous jumbo and galactic during the next few wordsmith additions will investigate the life histories of these big words mentioned above along the way we'll explore the characters places and events that inspired them. First up is colossal a word that really eclipses the notion of big this adjective means immense of a size that taxes belief colossal derives from Colossus The Greek word for a gigantic statue. The most famous example is the Colossus of Rhodes a 110 foot

bronze figure of the god Apollo its legs spanning the entrance to the harbor at the Mediterranean port city of Rhodes considered one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world the bronze Colossus was unrivalled in its magnificence and stature though destroyed by an earthquake into 25 B.C. The Colossus from which the adjective colossal is derived has always been associated with anything of impressive size. I'm Christie the wordsmith. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.