If he can match action to eloquence, and continue to harness even a small portion of the goodwill he rouses around him, then these will be spectacularly interesting times.

If not, then he still isn't Bush. His use of polysyllabic words makes him an immediate improvement in every way.

Em, I hate to be a meanie when you're posting about the genuinely good news of Obama's inauguration, but I've got to pick you up on this – enormity means "terrible crime", not something very big.

Unless you're a secret Bush supporter or something...

Shhh. Em and I were going to have a nice chat about that a little later. Plus 'in modern English enormity is often simply used as a synonym for hugeness and this is now broadly accepted in Standard English' as the Oxford Dictionary people like to say. My personal strategy: make sure you know the rules, but then break them whenever you feel like it.

How odd. I could have sworn Mr McP was Rob, but then Rob goes and comments.

I'm slightly annoyed with myself because Rob's told me that before. I will try to remember for the next time. There are some things that my brain refuses to accept as true, sometimes (like why does the word 'yellow' need a w on the end? My fingers always stop typing after the 'o' because they feel they've made how the word should sound clear enough.)

But it would be a shame to lose use of the word in its original sense, especially when there are perfectly good words such as 'immensity' that fulfil the role.

Cf. disinterested/uninterested.

Even though, like Rob says, common usage of 'enormity' as meaning 'largeness' is becoming acceptable, I always change it in the books that I edit. My rule is that if even a handful of people could trip over a word or usage, then it's not worth using -- correcting it will make that minority happy, and those who would have never noticed it will be none the wiser.

Ah, all this pedantry over language... Language is constantly evolving and that's the beauty of it. I reckon it's fine for 'enormity' to mean 'terrible crime' or 'significant occasion' or whatever else anyone wants it to mean. But then, I am an Englishwoman who embraces the entry of Americanisms into our language, though I personally dislike bacon double cheeseburgers cos they carry a risk of obesity.

Because then it would refer to Yello.