enormous [M16th] Enormous is from Latin enormis, from e- ‘out of’ and norma ‘pattern, standard’ (the root of norm [E19th], and normal [L16th]). In early use it meant ‘abnormal, unusual, extraordinary’ and also ‘abnormally bad, monstrous, shocking’ as well as ‘huge’. This bad sense is still found in enormity [LME], which strictly means ‘a grave crime or sin’ or ‘the extreme seriousness of something bad’, although today people increasingly use it to mean simply ‘great size or scale’.