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Big, bigger, biggest
Journalists constantly need to say that a phenomenon has increased or decreased, is large or small, serious or trivial. Sometimes they express these happenings in terms of rising levels in a test-tube, expansion as in balloons, or explosions. But they frequently get these images mixed, ending up with lists that explode, gaps that balloon and levels that are hefty.
In the real world, lists lengthen, gaps widen or narrow, tension slackens, levels, hurdles, barriers and rates can be high or low, delays lengthen, balloons and bubbles inflate (and burst when pricked), rivers and population numbers rise, slums spread and sound is amplified. Beware of using swell, expand, balloon or shrink when you mean rise or fall.
There’s a fashion for using big to mean serious. But then what do you do when you want to say something’s large? People use large, big, high, deep for severe, great, tough, extreme, important, chief. They use biggest for worst, best, most important, main, top, most. They use hefty for large, serious, impressive, leading to absurdities like “hefty decline”. So hefty means big, and big means serious or extreme... and severe means big?
(It could be worse – they used to say everything was major. And then they suddenly stopped.)
Snake populations worldwide suffer big declines NS June 10 Don't you mean "snake populations worldwide get much smaller"? How about "snake populations worldwide decline sharply" or "shrink alarmingly"?
big for grave A big concern about the national debt.
big for high would face big antitrust hurdles
big for serious big concerns
big for important Berger says this new species offers a big clue as to what was happening in the 100,000 years in between. ABC news April 2010
big for prominent played a big role
biggest for best The biggest way to reduce carbon emissions...
biggest for main Overpopulation is the biggest factor...
biggest for most important Perhaps the biggest lesson companies can learn... “The biggest rule that people should set themselves is: no pay for failure,” says Sir Stuart Rose. (most important) June 2011
biggest for worst The biggest hangover I’ve ever had.
deep for high So how deep are the levels of fraud and misconduct? BBC World ServiceWeb page, Sept 00
deepen for worsen It is part of the deepening crisis enveloping the dome. Guardian Sep 13 00; The diplomatic row over the Falkland Islands deepened dramatically. Times Feb 24 10
deeper for greater (deeper cooperation)
depth for extent
exploding for rising exploding costs
exploding for lengthening exploding lists
growing for rising growing levels
heavy for high a heavy level of redundancies
hefty for sharp hefty decline
high-paced for fast-paced
huge for important It occupies a huge niche in Asian American culture… Niches are small. A huge niche would be a cave.
large for great His works have had a large influence on contemporary thought. wiki
large for steep demographers report a large decline in family size (also confusing as we're talking about families getting smaller)
large for ??? The IMF was the target of a “large and sophisticated” cyber attack. June 2011 (serious? widespread? large-scale?)
larger for greater As his legend has grow ever larger.
largest for most popular The largest tourist destination.
severe for big The Antarctic ozone hole has not become more severe since the late 1990s... World Meteorological Organization report August 2006
swell for grow, increase, expand, rise, spread (popular in 2006) Why not use "up" as a verb?
thin for low Officers warn of thin troop levels. headline Wall Street Journal March 03
Mr Big
His family was socially prominent, though his performance was outstanding and the question was salient. (And the Cardinal was known as
"His Eminence".)
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