Chrysti The Wordsmith: Big Words - 2

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. There are quite a few synonyms of the simple adjective big colossal enormous gigantic and jumbo. Not only are these synonyms more entertaining on the tongue than the word big. They also have more colorful histories. Last time we looked at colossal an adjective derived from Colossus the Greek noun for an ancient statue of imposing proportions but Hema b e h e m o t h is a sorely under used term to suggest something of enormity. The word is an allusion to a great beast described in the Old Testament book of Job. Here is a description of the animal. Look at the behemoth what strength he has in his Lloyd's his bones are tubes of broadens his limbs like rods of iron. When the river rages he secure though the Jordan should surge against his mouth. This creature is most often identified with what we would call the Hippopotamus. Most versions of the Bible still use behemoth However from a Hebrew term meaning simply great beast in the July

17th 2009 edition of The Chicago Tribune reporter Steve Johnson used this ancient biblical term to describe a 21st century North American phenomenon calling the Starbucks franchise a quote 16000 store coffee behemoth. Most often behemoth is used as a noun but sometimes it takes on the function of an adjective. As in he drives a behemoth old Chevy or it took me weeks to read that behemoth novel. 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.