An example of a phrase that is not only overused, but misused.
The term comes from aviation, specifically from test pilots seeking to describe taking a course of action that exceeds the known safe specification of the hardware. It means to take a risk by pushing "the envelope of safe performance" which consists of altitude, speed, heat, acceleration, turning radius, and so forth.
In business-speak it means simply to "innovate". Seems like that's the word that should be used, since it conveys the intended meaning.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Ginormous
Word fusion is fun, yes indeed. But like a bomb of banality in a wordy hurt locker, it's gotta be defused eventually.
It's not as if the English language doesn't have enough words for one thing. If Gigantic and Enormous are old hat, there's also herculean, colossal, cyclopean, elephantine, gargantuan, giant, huge, immense, jumbo, mammoth, massive, monster, monstrous, stupendous, monolithic, titan, tremendous, vast, astronomic, considerable, humongous, mega, monumental, prodigious, sizable, towering, very big, very large, whopping and brobdingnagian.
Brobdingnagian beats Ginormous vowels and consonants down. It's even a bigger word.
It's not as if the English language doesn't have enough words for one thing. If Gigantic and Enormous are old hat, there's also herculean, colossal, cyclopean, elephantine, gargantuan, giant, huge, immense, jumbo, mammoth, massive, monster, monstrous, stupendous, monolithic, titan, tremendous, vast, astronomic, considerable, humongous, mega, monumental, prodigious, sizable, towering, very big, very large, whopping and brobdingnagian.
Brobdingnagian beats Ginormous vowels and consonants down. It's even a bigger word.
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