[TAG] English->American dictionary

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Mike Orr (mso at oz.net):

> People don't realize the enormity of problems handicapped 
> people deal with...

You might wish to know that "enormity" is _not_ a noun used to denote
magnitude.  It means "great and notorious _wickedness_".

That's a common usage error.  I'm guessing that someone once encountered 
a phrase like "sentenced for the enormity of his deeds" and erroneously
concluded that "enormity" must be something like "enormousness".  And
thus the misconception became established.