YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WYTV) – The words we’ll show you may sound goofy or sloppy, and may make some English teachers cringe, but English is a vital, living language, and these are real words — at least, according to several dictionaries.
Firstly
Why not just say first? We do say secondly, thirdly, etc. It may sound awkward, but it is a word that people use.
Irregardless
You may have heard, sorry, there’s no such word. But we’ve been saying it since the early 1900s, and now it’s showing up in dictionaries. Still, use regardless instead.
Prolly is taking over for probably in text messages, but its origin goes back to the 1940s. It’s a relaxed contraction such as gonna, as in, you’re gonna have to accept prolly. The Oxford English Dictionary does.
Anyways goes back to the 13th century and was gradually shortened to anyway.
Orientate
Like irregardless and anyways, you can use orientate, but you shouldn’t. The word came from British English in the 1840s meaning to orient yourself, get your bearings.
Snuck
The past tense of sneak is sneaked, but we’ve been saying snuck since the 1800s. The Random House Dictionary explains that professional writers and educated speakers have used it so much, snuck just sort of snuck up on us.
Impactful
Advertising agencies invented this word in the 1960s to describe their campaigns as “having a big impact.” But it’s now in the dictionary, so it’s a word.
Gonna is a word since 1806. The next time you think you’re “short-texting” when you type “gonna” instead of “going to,” grammatically speaking, you are correct.
Ginormous
Ginormous is another word for massive or huge. That’s probably a ginormous surprise to you, but it has been around since 1942.
Humongous
Merriam-Webster says humongous is similar to ginormous, a real, dictionary-approved word meaning anything extremely large.
Funner
Merriam-Webster tells us that funner and funnest are sometimes OK, and if you don’t agree, you’re no fun.
