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."
