What the hell is it with the word "bigly?"

[usmbguest5318]

Several times in the past month, I've noticed people writing or saying "bigly." When did that word come into relatively common usage?

I asked someone "in the real world" this question and they answered that Donald Trump used it. Given Trump's abominable English (see also: What Language Experts Find So Strange About Donald Trump), that he used it is adequate reason not to use mimic his doing so. More importantly, however, Trump hasn't, as far as I know, used the word "bigly." (At one point, I thought he did, but it turns out he did not.)

Is "bigly" indeed a legit word? Yes, at least Merriam-Webster says it is, by dint of the grammatical construction of adding the suffix "ly" to the adjective "big," so in the lexicon of American English, it is a word. (The Oxford Dictionary of British and World English does not -- bigness is what comes up when one searches for "bigly" -- so among speakers of non-American English, it's not a word.) Genuine word or not, the question is why and when did "bigly" become so suddenly common?

 

[ScienceRocks]

He says it to make up for his tiny penis.

 

[MarathonMike]

He likes to use the term "Big League" so some say that is what he is saying, not 'bigly'. Most think he is saying 'bigly' at least some of the time, thus the new popularity of the word.

 

[Marion Morrison]

I'm guessing Trump said it once.

 

[usmbguest5318]

He says it to make up for his tiny penis.

He who? Trump?

Trump says he didn't say "bigly." That attestation on his part may be among the precious few things he's said that's been scrutinized and found to be absolutely true.

Now that Trump's enunciation is so sloven that it wasn't clear whether he said "bigly" or "big league" is a different matter, but then, as noted in many places, the man speaks as might an eleven or twelve year-old. Poor enunciation is just one more aspect of his speech militating for that being so.

 

[Bleipriester]

Is "bigly" indeed a legit word?

It´s in my dictionary.

 

[usmbguest5318]

Is "bigly" indeed a legit word?

It´s in my dictionary.

??? Well, who are you and of what dictionary are you the publisher/editor?

Did you miss my having in the OP written:

• Is "bigly" indeed a legit word? Yes, at least Merriam-Webster says it is.
• Genuine word or not, the question is why and when did "bigly" become so suddenly common?

I don't think there's anything to be gained from contesting or supporting whether the word is legitimate. There's no dearth of words that one can validly form using the conventions of English grammar and that one will not find explicitly listed in a dictionary. Furthermore, and as a purely practical matter, this thread topic exists on the U.S. section of the USMB forum and the (arguably?) most widely accepted authority on the validity of words in standard American English (but probably not English on the whole and as a language) says "bigly" is a word, so, for writings here, it is.

Aside from doing so for poetic effect, I'm unlikely to use "bigly," be I speaking or writing for a predominantly U.S. or non-U.S. audience. If others do or do not, I don't care. I'm just curious about what's made it so popular among writers here. Like me, the people with whom I have material interactions "in the real world" don't and likely won't use "bigly."

 

[Bleipriester]

Is "bigly" indeed a legit word?

It´s in my dictionary.

??? Well, who are you and of what dictionary are you the publisher/editor?

Did you miss my having in the OP written:

• Is "bigly" indeed a legit word? Yes, at least Merriam-Webster says it is.
• Genuine word or not, the question is why and when did "bigly" become so suddenly common?

I don't think there's anything to be gained from contesting or supporting whether the word is legitimate. There's no dearth of words that one can validly form using the conventions of English grammar and that one will not find explicitly listed in a dictionary. Furthermore, and as a purely practical matter, this thread topic exists on the U.S. section of the USMB forum and the (arguably?) most widely accepted authority on the validity of words in standard American English (but probably not English on the whole and as a language) says "bigly" is a word, so, for writings here, it is.

Aside from doing so for poetic effect, I'm unlikely to use "bigly," be I speaking or writing for a predominantly U.S. or non-U.S. audience. If others do or do not, I don't care. I'm just curious about what's made it so popular among writers here. Like me, the people with whom I have material interactions "in the real world" don't and likely won't use "bigly."

I am the President of this post and I hereby ban this word bigly. Whoever dares to use it will be punished bigly.


No, seriously, on the board it wasn´t common, I guess. But suddenly it tremendously marched in. The first documented bigly was posted in April 2017.

bigly

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd took possum fishin'...

... an' possum caught a bigly fish.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Is covfefe a word?

 

[Bleipriester]

Depends.

 

[usmbguest5318]

Is covfefe a word?

• What is covfefe? Trump's baffling late-night tweet - CNNPolitics.com
• Urban Dictionary: Covfefe

 

[longknife]

Several times in the past month, I've noticed people writing or saying "bigly." When did that word come into relatively common usage?

I asked someone "in the real world" this question and they answered that Donald Trump used it. Given Trump's abominable English (see also: What Language Experts Find So Strange About Donald Trump), that he used it is adequate reason not to use mimic his doing so. More importantly, however, Trump hasn't, as far as I know, used the word "bigly." (At one point, I thought he did, but it turns out he did not.)

Is "bigly" indeed a legit word? Yes, at least Merriam-Webster says it is, by dint of the grammatical construction of adding the suffix "ly" to the adjective "big," so in the lexicon of American English, it is a word. (The Oxford Dictionary of British and World English does not -- bigness is what comes up when one searches for "bigly" -- so among speakers of non-American English, it's not a word.) Genuine word or not, the question is why and when did "bigly" become so suddenly common?

It's a word from a highly intelligent man designed to drive so-called purists up the wall. And --- it works!

 

[miketx]

Everyday it's a new display of the lefts insanity.

 

[norwegen]

I'm guessing Trump said it once.

He didn't say it all. It's in the Snowflake Lexicon because snowflakes think it's cute to make fun of Trump, especially when they can make up stuff to make fun of him over.

They can't find Utopia, so they'll settle for Fantasyland.

 

[Wyatt earp]

Is "bigly" indeed a legit word?

It´s in my dictionary.

??? Well, who are you and of what dictionary are you the publisher/editor?

Did you miss my having in the OP written:

• Is "bigly" indeed a legit word? Yes, at least Merriam-Webster says it is.
• Genuine word or not, the question is why and when did "bigly" become so suddenly common?

I don't think there's anything to be gained from contesting or supporting whether the word is legitimate. There's no dearth of words that one can validly form using the conventions of English grammar and that one will not find explicitly listed in a dictionary. Furthermore, and as a purely practical matter, this thread topic exists on the U.S. section of the USMB forum and the (arguably?) most widely accepted authority on the validity of words in standard American English (but probably not English on the whole and as a language) says "bigly" is a word, so, for writings here, it is.

Aside from doing so for poetic effect, I'm unlikely to use "bigly," be I speaking or writing for a predominantly U.S. or non-U.S. audience. If others do or do not, I don't care. I'm just curious about what's made it so popular among writers here. Like me, the people with whom I have material interactions "in the real world" don't and likely won't use "bigly."

Trump is a liberal with a (R) after his name, in case you didn't notice liberals are notorious to introduce new words in a debate


Example

Climate cooling > Climate warming > climate change

Liberal > progressive

Illegal alien > undocumented citizen

Shipping clerk > logistics


.

 

[usmbguest5318]

Several times in the past month, I've noticed people writing or saying "bigly." When did that word come into relatively common usage?

I asked someone "in the real world" this question and they answered that Donald Trump used it. Given Trump's abominable English (see also: What Language Experts Find So Strange About Donald Trump), that he used it is adequate reason not to use mimic his doing so. More importantly, however, Trump hasn't, as far as I know, used the word "bigly." (At one point, I thought he did, but it turns out he did not.)

Is "bigly" indeed a legit word? Yes, at least Merriam-Webster says it is, by dint of the grammatical construction of adding the suffix "ly" to the adjective "big," so in the lexicon of American English, it is a word. (The Oxford Dictionary of British and World English does not -- bigness is what comes up when one searches for "bigly" -- so among speakers of non-American English, it's not a word.) Genuine word or not, the question is why and when did "bigly" become so suddenly common?

It's a word from a highly intelligent man designed to drive so-called purists up the wall. And --- it works!

It's a word from a highly intelligent man

Well, who would that man be?

 

[usmbguest5318]

Is "bigly" indeed a legit word?

It´s in my dictionary.

??? Well, who are you and of what dictionary are you the publisher/editor?

Did you miss my having in the OP written:

• Is "bigly" indeed a legit word? Yes, at least Merriam-Webster says it is.
• Genuine word or not, the question is why and when did "bigly" become so suddenly common?

I don't think there's anything to be gained from contesting or supporting whether the word is legitimate. There's no dearth of words that one can validly form using the conventions of English grammar and that one will not find explicitly listed in a dictionary. Furthermore, and as a purely practical matter, this thread topic exists on the U.S. section of the USMB forum and the (arguably?) most widely accepted authority on the validity of words in standard American English (but probably not English on the whole and as a language) says "bigly" is a word, so, for writings here, it is.

Aside from doing so for poetic effect, I'm unlikely to use "bigly," be I speaking or writing for a predominantly U.S. or non-U.S. audience. If others do or do not, I don't care. I'm just curious about what's made it so popular among writers here. Like me, the people with whom I have material interactions "in the real world" don't and likely won't use "bigly."

Trump is a liberal with a (R) after his name, in case you didn't notice liberals are notorious to introduce new words in a debate

Example

Climate cooling > Climate warming > climate change

Liberal > progressive

Illegal alien > undocumented citizen

Shipping clerk > logistics.

liberals are notorious to introduce new words in a debate Example

• Climate cooling > Climate warming > climate change
• Liberal > progressive
• Illegal alien > undocumented citizen
• Shipping clerk > logistics

Dude, what are you talking about? None of those words are new.

• Etymologies:
  • Climate
  • Change
  • Warm ("warming" is a standard conjugation of "warm" and, in your example, used as a gerund)
  • Liberal
  • Progressive
  • Illegal ("illegal" is merely "legal" with the prefix "il" added)
  • Alien
  • Document ("undocumented" is "document" conjugated with the prefix "un" added)
  • Citizen
  • Ship ("shipping" is a conjugated form of "ship," in your example, it's a gerund form used as an adjectival noun)
  • Logistics

In addition to none of the words you noted being new, I challenge you to credibly establish that any of them were coined by individuals one can accurately classify as what we today call "liberals."

 

[Wyatt earp]

Is "bigly" indeed a legit word?

It´s in my dictionary.

??? Well, who are you and of what dictionary are you the publisher/editor?

Did you miss my having in the OP written:

• Is "bigly" indeed a legit word? Yes, at least Merriam-Webster says it is.
• Genuine word or not, the question is why and when did "bigly" become so suddenly common?

I don't think there's anything to be gained from contesting or supporting whether the word is legitimate. There's no dearth of words that one can validly form using the conventions of English grammar and that one will not find explicitly listed in a dictionary. Furthermore, and as a purely practical matter, this thread topic exists on the U.S. section of the USMB forum and the (arguably?) most widely accepted authority on the validity of words in standard American English (but probably not English on the whole and as a language) says "bigly" is a word, so, for writings here, it is.

Aside from doing so for poetic effect, I'm unlikely to use "bigly," be I speaking or writing for a predominantly U.S. or non-U.S. audience. If others do or do not, I don't care. I'm just curious about what's made it so popular among writers here. Like me, the people with whom I have material interactions "in the real world" don't and likely won't use "bigly."

Trump is a liberal with a (R) after his name, in case you didn't notice liberals are notorious to introduce new words in a debate

Example

Climate cooling > Climate warming > climate change

Liberal > progressive

Illegal alien > undocumented citizen

Shipping clerk > logistics.

liberals are notorious to introduce new words in a debate Example

• Climate cooling > Climate warming > climate change
• Liberal > progressive
• Illegal alien > undocumented citizen
• Shipping clerk > logistics

Dude, what are you talking about? None of those words are new.

• Etymologies:
  • Climate
  • Change
  • Warm ("warming" is a standard conjugation of "warm" and, in your example, used as a gerund)
  • Liberal
  • Progressive
  • Illegal ("illegal" is merely "legal" with the prefix "il" added)
  • Alien
  • Document ("undocumented" is "document" conjugated with the prefix "un" added)
  • Citizen
  • Ship ("shipping" is a conjugated form of "ship," in your example, it's a gerund form used as an adjectival noun)
  • Logistics

In addition to none of the words you noted being new, I challenge you to credibly establish that any of them were coined by individuals one can accurately classify as what we today call "liberals."

Dude you know exactly what I meant unless you are only 18 years old...


.

 

[Bruce_T_Laney]

Several times in the past month, I've noticed people writing or saying "bigly." When did that word come into relatively common usage?

I asked someone "in the real world" this question and they answered that Donald Trump used it. Given Trump's abominable English (see also: What Language Experts Find So Strange About Donald Trump), that he used it is adequate reason not to use mimic his doing so. More importantly, however, Trump hasn't, as far as I know, used the word "bigly." (At one point, I thought he did, but it turns out he did not.)

Is "bigly" indeed a legit word? Yes, at least Merriam-Webster says it is, by dint of the grammatical construction of adding the suffix "ly" to the adjective "big," so in the lexicon of American English, it is a word. (The Oxford Dictionary of British and World English does not -- bigness is what comes up when one searches for "bigly" -- so among speakers of non-American English, it's not a word.) Genuine word or not, the question is why and when did "bigly" become so suddenly common?

I would say in the 1980's and more of a East Coast way of saying Bigger or Biggest. You have words from around America that is Americana way of speaking that would not be used in other parts of the world just like Canada has it own words that you would not use here or Australia, New Zealand or even England.

A Fag in England is a smoke here in the states but we use the word Fag as derogatory word toward the Homosexual community. It also mean young Lad if I remember correctly, so as I have pointed out words have different meanings and some words that you believe are made up could be actual words but just for that certain region of America.