Talk:ensmallen

Requests for verification - kept
Kept. See archived discussion of December 2007. 04:39, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

Embiggen unrelated
Ensmallen is not related to The Simpsons' "embiggen" and is attested far earlier than 2002. As an example, Murray Leinster's 1954 novel The Forgotten Planet, set on a planet where insects and fungi have grown to gigantic size, in chapter 10 contains the paragraph:
 * The tribesmen were doubtful. But they plucked mushrooms — whole ones! — instead of merely breaking off parts of their tops. With deep astonishment they recognized the miniature objects as familiar things ensmalled. These mushrooms had the same savor, but they were not coarse or stringy or tough like the giants. They melted in the mouth; Life in this place to which Burl had led them was delectable! Truly the doings of Burl were astonishing!

There we have the humans, used to monstrously large mushroom "trees" first discovering normal-sized mushrooms. Idontcareanymore (talk) 01:58, 17 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Well, if you look at that usage, ensmalled would be the past tense of ensmall, not ensmallen. So that wouldn't actually count as an attestation. —Μετάknowledge discuss/deeds 02:21, 17 July 2013 (UTC)