It took some prompting…
…but I finally got Chat GPT1 to give me a list of 100 different synonyms for big. All the words you'd think would be there are there, but it very quickly becomes apparent, when looking at the list, just how many big words are actually euphemisms. And that can be kind of a dangerous thing.
So, before we go any further, two things: First, yes, I'll put the full list of synonyms down at the bottom of the essay for both the curious and the mildly masochistic. And second, here's Merriam-Webster's definition of euphemism2:
the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant
We use euphemisms3 to talk around things we don't want to say out loud because it will offend or hurt someone's feelings. As members of polite society, of course we know this. We use euphemisms all the time. They're part of the fabric of daily life.
And big, it turns out, is a standout example of euphemistic language, at least where people are concerned. Because, although I had to prompt Chat GPT five times in order to build the list, euphemistic words were part of its answer from the very start. Right alongside the expected words like huge and giant were more loaded terms like beefy and husky. And, arguably, those latter two words are less synonymous with each other than the earlier two. Which makes this list a good exploration of synonyms as euphemisms.
Let’s start with a word from deep in the list, fat. For all of my life, I’ve heard big, or some variation thereof, as a polite way of saying fat; when I was a kid, the euphemism du jour was big boned. It was up there right next to "healthy eater" as words that sounded good but still stung because even as a kid, the inherent criticism was felt if not articulated.
Fat has its own synonyms on the list: portly, corpulent, and tubby are all present as well. And, speaking frankly, I’d just as soon be called big than any of those words. I suspect that most people would. In fact, I’d argue that there isn’t really a good reason to use corpulent as a way to describe anyone, especially someone you wanted to remain friends with. So, describing someone as big is a kindness, a polite fiction.
But, what if you're a doctor? Are you serving your patient well by calling them big rather than the more medically accurate but exponentially more damning obese? I honestly don't know. But big doesn’t always mean fat.
The flip side of euphemism is, of course, exaggeration. Or maybe flattery. There are plenty of examples of both within the list. What if, instead of big, you get labeled as burly, beefy, husky, or perhaps even, Herculean? That might be alright. I mean, if I have a choice between beefy and porky, I'll be over here mooing until the cows come home! The point is, sometimes, big is the flavorless, bland word that gets tossed to the side in favor of something interesting.
And sometimes that’s kind of problematic. Take, for example, words like shapely, voluptuous, curvaceous, or, God forbid, chesty? Are those compliments? Depends entirely on the context, I suppose, but not only would I think twice before using them, I don't know that I'd hurry to teach them to my students. Those words seem like the kind that might get someone into trouble if they didn't know exactly how and when to use them4.
Euphemisms are not a bad thing. In fact, most of the time, they help us navigate the myriad social interactions we engage in every day. But it’s worth thinking about just what we’re eliding when we use euphemisms; it’s worth thinking about just how different two words can be even when they mean the same thing.
So, I’ll close this up with the big list, courtesy of Chat GPT. As I said above, the list begins with the standard big words and gets progressively less synonymous as it goes on. That said, there are some interesting trends that show a bit about how large language models work - see Group 3 for one example as it begins with a whole slew of ~size words - but that is for another discussion, perhaps. Anyway, here’s the list. Enjoy!
Group 1: Large Huge Giant Massive Enormous Colossal Immense Vast Monumental Mammoth Titanic Jumbo Gigantic Mighty Tremendous Substantial Bulky Burly Beefy Husky.
Group 2: Oversized Roomy Spacious Capacious Expansive Wide Broad Extensive Comprehensive Grand Majestic Stately Astronomical Cosmic Herculean Monstrous Prodigious Whopping Gargantuan Brobdingnagian.
Group 3: King-size Emperor-sized Titan-sized Super-sized Mammoth-sized Elephantine Behemoth Cyclopean Goliath Leviathan Whalesize Mountainous Towering High-rise Sky-high Supernal Overgrown Outsize Bunyanesque Godzilla-like.
Group 4: Hulking Lumbering Bulbous Thickset Brawny Stout Hefty Weighty Plump Rotund Portly Corpulent Falstaffian Obese Podgy Ponderous Tubby Fat Chunky Beefcake
Group 5: Brawny Herculean Sinewy Strapping Buff Robust Well-built Athletic Muscular Broad-shouldered Buxom Chesty Curvaceous Shapely Voluptuous Big-boned Thick Wide-set Towering Largish
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What We’re Reading
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Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law
by Mary Roach
From the book’s description on Bookshop.org:
What's to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? … the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
Mary Roach has long been one of my favorite science writers. She is able to take complex, difficult subjects and make them both fun and relatable. I’m really looking forward to this.
C'mon, that's a seriously good pun. And so prompt, right at the start of the essay, eh, eh?
I got asked recently, why I include so many dictionary definitions in my pieces and the answer is twofold - one, the entire premise behind my study of etymology is that none of us know our language as well as we think we do. Two, having a definition where everyone can see it, within the piece itself, ensures that we're all on the same page, that we're all working from the same baseline. And a third, extra point, is that there are more than a few ESL speakers reading Learned at this point and it never pays to assume that everyone knows all the words.
Is it just me or is that definition damn near a euphemism in its own right?
I'm minimizing here because I'm a 90s dude and I feel like, had I used these words with my women friends when I was in school, I would have gotten schooled real quick on why maybe I shouldn't oughta use them. If anyone would like to chime in with their perception of these words, I'd be very curious to read them.