If my memory serves me correctly, I first encountered the word embiggen a year or so ago. I thought it seemed odd, but in context, the meaning was quite obvious.
Since that time I've seen this word with progressively greater frequency. I tried to Google the word and I can find references to it in both Wiktionary and the Urban Dictionary– both are not professional, formal dictionaries so that would lend me to believe that the word is certainly slang.
However, in almost every context that I have observed this word in use, it has been within a professional or semi-formal environment.
Is embiggen considered a formal or slang word?
Best Answer
This now appears in the following dictionaries.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embiggen
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/submission/535/embiggen
Here is an article explaining why.
http://www.theweek.co.uk/92117/the-simpsons-embiggens-english-with-official-new-word