It's hard to take an article that uses the word 'ginormous' seriously

helsinkiandrew 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I think quoting is fine, but it's surprising coming from a senior adviser at a U.S. Government department.

> “What we have right now is this ginormous ongoing outbreak of Sporothrix brasiliensis in Brazil,” Lockhart, a senior adviser at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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alpinisme 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The article doesn’t. It quotes a CDC advisor who does.

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doodlebugging 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I agree even though I use ginormous in normal conversation. In the right context it is fine, I just don't think this is the right context.

I also find it hard to take an article seriously when its volume comparison employs "Olympic-sized swimming pools". I think the fraction of people who have a clear enough mental idea of the dimensions or volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool is pretty small relative to the articles readership, which I hope they measure realistically under the assumption that the number of readers will always be close to half the number of eyeballs on the page. Otherwise they would be inflating readership and that would be misleading.

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esseph 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> I think the fraction of people who have a clear enough mental idea of the dimensions or volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool is pretty small relative to the articles readership

At least in the US, "Olympic sized swimming pool" is as common a unit of measure as a US football field - very commonly used.

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doodlebugging 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I agree. It is common to see those used as area and volume examples. I think it is far less common for the audience to have a clear mental picture of the two terms though. It's easier for a football field to serve as a reference because more people have exposure to football fields. It is more difficult for an Olympic sized swimming pool to serve as a reference because there are fewer people who have seen one in person.

I think it is a bit comical to use swimming pools as a volumetric reference when most people's experience with swimming pools has been in a back yard setting or on visits to community pools, which may be any convenient size.

	▲	esseph an hour ago \| parent [-]
		> I think it is a bit comical to use swimming pools as a volumetric reference when most people's experience with swimming pools has been in a back yard setting or on visits to community pools, which may be any convenient size. A lot of US high schools and US colleges have Olympic pools.

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LargeWu 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

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abanana 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It probably does a better job of getting the point across to a general readership than if they'd used overly technical domain-specific jargon about quantity of cases and speed of its spread.

	▲	bandofthehawk 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Technical jargon like "gigantic" or "enormous"?

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sambeau 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Here in Scotland, 'ginormous' is normal, possibly more regularly used than 'enormous' or 'giant'.