Is Magnanimous Right in this Context?



While I was in high school, my English teacher once used magnanimous in a statement to mean huge/large. But after checking the meaning of it recently, it doesn't seem to mean what I thought it meant, so I need to know if it was right in the context.


The full statement was:



A magnanimous conflagration is engulfing my edifice, please report to my domicile pronto.



I believe that this is supposed to mean:



A huge fire is burning my mansion, please report to my home immediately.



That is, it was a joke and intended for a call to the fire fighters.


Beyond the above statement, I have seen same used on a Trip Advisor Review to mean big, and some twitter posts with same intent. Also Definition at Dictionary.com stated big as part of its synonyms.


Putting all this in mind, My question is; Is my teacher's statement correct?



Answer



In this case, the whole thing is, as a number of people have commented on, a joke.


The humour is subtle, and primarily absurdist in nature, in that no sane person who wants the firefighters to come quickly would use such florid language.


The whole thing would fit in well in today's world as a parody of those who are a little too quick to consult a thesaurus but not validate the results using a combination of dictionary and reading enough to be familiar with real-life usage of the words found.


Indeed the intended meaning is generous, as in ample or substantial, or just plain big.


[Note: all the words are used with "correct" meanings, they're just completely "unidiomatic" in the context]


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