Embiggening Our List of Alternatives for Business English

I was an English major in college. Occasionally this means that people ask me things. Like how to spell something. Or whether something is a word. I don't think I'm an above-average speller. And as far as whether something is a word, people would get very frustrated with me.

Me: Hmmm, I don't know. Can you use it in a sentence?
EB: Sure. It embiggened my budget.
Me: I see. Well, if you used that sentence, would everybody know what you meant?
EB: I guess so.
Me: Then it's a word.
EB: That can't be right.

This was never the definitive answer they were hoping for. I think maybe they were trying to piss me off and just going down the wrong track.

But here's what they could have said. They could have said "re-look at." What the hell is that? "We need to re-look at that, because I think things have changed." You bet your ass they have. That dumbass phrase that you used that's completely unnecessary? That's ILLEGAL now, bucko. Because if I have the power to say whether something's a word, this phrase-that's-not-a-word is going down.

Here are a few sanctioned alternatives. Feel free to add your own. Anything but "re-look at." Because it's stupid.

Official Alternatives to "Re-look at," which is hereby banned for all time:

• review
• reexamine
• reevaluate
• reassess
• have a second look at
• have another look at
• look at it again
  

Okay, people? Perfectly good English words. I'm fine with y'all inventing your own English words. I'm good with playing with language--I think it's fun, and you should have at it with gusto. But re-look at sounds bad and it drives me nuts, even though technnically it's no worse than lots of things I do myself (mea culpa--just stop saying it).

Use embiggen as often as you like, but please don't re-look at anything.