I'm well known for my toleration and generosity of spirit, for my forbearance and my willingness to see the best in everybody. I can even believe that there might be some good in the new president – somewhere, secreted away, and that something useful might emerge from his policies, maybe by misadventure. But when he said "bigly" as in 'We're gonna do this bigly', enough, I thought. Then his explainers-away tried to say that he actually said, "big league" which made it worse as only alternative facts can.
But then, I mused, it is odd that hugely is ok, as are enormously and largely, so why not bigly, pausing only to note that largely has little to do with size. And so I went to the dictionaries and found:
Bigly: In a tumid, swelling, blustering manner; haughtily; violently. "He brawleth bigly ."
Websters (1913) says that this comes from Thomas More. Apt really. The president spake more than he knew ...
Respond