> As far as Mirriam-Webster's quotations are concerned, it's shockingly unconvincing. Four or five quotes out of the hundreds of millions (a wild guess) of times the word has been used in the last century means nothing. An impressive author or two is credited with the quotations, but hey, I could show how "they" could be used as a singular pronoun just by taking a dozen or so selected quotations from the writings of Jane Austen.
>

Those quotes were intended as representative examples, not as the entire body of evidence. MW can hardly include thousands of quotes showing enormity used to mean 'immensity'. :)


P.S. 'they' _can_ be used as a singular pronoun. *grin*