Origin and history of enormous

late 15c., "transgression, crime; irregularity," from Old French enormité "extravagance, atrocity, heinous sin," from Latin enormitatem (nominative enormitas) "hugeness, vastness; irregularity," from enormis "irregular, huge" (see enormous). Meaning "extreme wickedness" in English attested from 1560s. The notion is of that which surpasses the endurable limits of order, right, decency. Sense of "hugeness" (1765 in English) is etymological but to prevent misunderstanding probably best avoided in favor of enormousness, though this, too, originally meant "immeasurable wickedness" (1718) and didn't start to mean "hugeness" until c. 1800.

"a standard, pattern, or model," 1821 (Coleridge), from French norme, from Latin norma "carpenter's square, rule, pattern," a word of unknown origin. Klein suggests a borrowing (via Etruscan) of Greek gnōmōn "carpenter's square." The Latin form of the word, norma, was used in English in the sense of "carpenter's square" from 1670s, also as the name of a small, faint southern constellation introduced 18c. by La Caille.