Loosey-goosey defenders can insist "it's not a mistake" to use enormity as a synonym for "huge," or even the childlike "humongous," but those who care for clarity in communication to the widest audience will respect the distinction: enormousness is always "bigness"; enormity is often associated with "badness".
Their enormity is impressive, but it is their many details that are most captivating.
When structural change happens, the enormity is often beyond the scope of the protagonists as the consequences are unthinkable.
I was well into my second decade of journalism before I found out that "enormity" is a synonym for monstrosity or wickedness – not hugeness.
The judge told them, as he sent them away for 30 years, that it was "a crime which in its impudence and enormity is the first of its kind in this country.
And the few who make the effort to get into Britain's wild rafters share the biggest secret of all: up above the millions in this crowded … this apparently suffocatingly crowded nation, the spaciousness and enormity is breathtaking.
Robbing the Royal Mail was, as the trial judge, Mr Justice Edmund Davies, told Biggs, "a crime which, in its impudence and enormity, is the first of its kind in this country".
But since Mr Reeve's crime involved child pornography, and his job was teaching physical education in a school, the level of panic and the potential fallout is almost without limit.Memories of an earlier enormity are one reason for the hysteria.
In fact, one of the reasons the robbery became so well known was the length of sentences doled out by Mr Justice Edmund Davies, who said it was "a crime which in its impudence and enormity is the first of its kind in this country.
This chair, barring its absolute enormity, is also comfortable and I was able to sleep on, slightly curled into a fetal position but in relative ease for at least an hour one lazy weekend afternoon – and I'm not a small guy.
