Re: Who Came First

[Alan McKendree <AI.amck@mcc.com>]

    Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 08:24 CDT
    From: "Chuck Tomlinson"  <tomlinso@chemsun.chem.umn.edu>

    In message <199409271307.GAA00200@hubbub.cisco.com> "Ron Crandall" writes:

    > that Pete was writing that as a variation of "enormous".  I think it's
    > actually a completely made-up word -- "gyromouse". 

    Let's here it for minutae! :)

Well, as long as we're hearing it, it's "minutiae" :-)

    How about "Ginormous" (or a slight spelling variation)? It's made-up word I've 
    used before, being a combination of "gigantic" and "enormous". Pronounced 
    "gy-nor-muss". Food for thought, anyway!

I agree with this.  I looked at it and what's there is, I believe,
"gynomouse" (look at the other lower-case "r"'s in Pete's handwriting,
there's no such "r" in the word in question).  However, "gy-nor-muss" is
an amusing blend of "gigantic" and "enormous," and has the additional
evidence that (although 22 years later) it appears in the script of the
Broadway _Tommy_, spelled "ginormous" (Uncle Ernie's line, opening
second act).  I'm attributing any apparent deviation on the album notes
from "ginormous" to Pete's spelling preferences and possible handwriting
glitches.

     >  I always thought of
     >it as a play on words; as in "gyro", which means constantly spinning or
     >moving, and "mouse", which is obvious.

Yikes.  If I'm right, and it's _gyno_mouse--"gyno" means female.  I've
just hit my allotment of time to spend on this... :-)  My vote:
"ginormous" variant.

Alan