Recently a friend of mine asked me the difference between the words “big” and “large.”  I had never given this much thought.  After looking at the backgounds of the two words, I found the following information quite interesting and helpful.

“Big” is a Scandinavian word that originally meant important or of great significance and was used to refer to a “big deal” or a “big man” (that is, an important leader, officer in an organization or company, or office holder in the government).  Gradually, ”big” was used in terms of considerable or substantial, and now ”big” is used to refer to something that is big in size or importance, but not humungious, terribly out of proportion, or of an undesireable nature–not extra large–just big in size or importance.

“Large” comes from the English and French and originally was used in the sense of extravagant, lavish, exuberant, or lush–considered as an undesirable or a not-so-good characteristic.  ”Large” gradually has become used to refer to something that is “more than usual,” that is, very considerable in size or significance, out of proportion, or overly large. 

”Large” is genearlly thought of as being much greater and more comprehensive than “big.”  Having this information definitely influences one’s use of two words that are similiar in meaning, yet are different.