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Just For Fun

Egregious

Professor Hogben... is unwilling to look 'egregious' up in the dictionary and see what it means.

—George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language"

Hacker: What does "egregious" mean?
Humphrey: Um, I think it means outstanding. ... In one way or another.

—Yes Minister, "The Death List"

Jack Sparrow: It is pronounced... e-GRE-gious.

—Pirates Of The Caribbean 3

Ross: Would you say you're a fairly egregious person?
Pauline: Wha'?
Ross: Are you an egregious person? Do you have . . . an egregious personality?
Pauline: Em... yeah, I do.

—The League Of Gentlemen, "Nightmare in Royston Vasey"

People keep using the word 'egregious', which does not mean what they often think it means. According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

egre·gious ( \i-ˈgrē-jəs\ ) adj. 1 archaic : distinguished 2 : conspicuous; especially : conspicuously bad : flagrant <egregious errors>. Latin egregius, from e- + greg-, grex herd
- egre·gious·ly adverb
- egre·gious·ness noun

You'll see this word used a lot on This Very Wiki. Repeatedly used, you could even say (And egregiously at that). It's almost as if people are looking for reasons to put it in, as if it were the trigger for some kind of pleasurable behavior. Now drink up!

Of course, the real reason is that people want to look learned on this site (Alternatively, it's just a really fun word to say. Go ahead, try it!). So, instead of saying "This series is a particularly bad example in that...", you get "This series is particularly egregious in..."

A much less used word that seems to be the target of much egregious grasping is "gregarious", which means "social" or "sociable". If someone's talking about an "egregious person", this is what they were going for.^* Oh, and "egregarious" is not the Internet equivalent of being sociable, it's not a word at all, despite what some people seem to think

You might even say it's egregiously over-used. Did you say egregious? Well, egregious egregious egregious egregious egregious egregious egregious egregious egregious egregious egregious egregious egregious egregious egregious... ah, it's gotten old. Now if you excuse me, I have to wash the shark.*thud*

It's Egregious that this stinger exists purely for the TV Tropes Wiki Drinking Game.

Waldorf: The Tropers sure seem to like the word "egregious".
Statler: That's because it describes this whole website!
Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!