The word, which is attributed to Jebediah Springfield on The Simpsons, is also featured on the town’s statue of the founder in some episodes and reads “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.”
Though it looks like The Simpsons will get most of the credit for the word, the former slang term has an origin that is beyond the show’s alleged coining of the term.
The rant is awesomely ironic given the current subject matter, no?
Years after the episode aired, it was discovered that a man named C.A. Ward used embiggen in a note back in 1884.