Is “awesome” still awesome?

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Is “awesome” still awesome?

Culture

May 25, 2010 by Dave Hamilton

The English language is a work in progress. Words exist today that didn’t exist a hundred years ago: “Google,” “celebutante” and, the more obvious, “bahookie.” Others have fallen away: “Anon,” “Fie” and, “Yoicks” come readily to mind.

At the same time, some words are misused often enough over time that they change meaning in everyday usage. A perfect example of this is “awesome.”

Today, the word “awesome” is taken to mean something that is really good or sensational. What it really describes, if we are faithful to Oxford, is that which inspires awe – a feeling of reverential respect, mixed with fear.

Awesome storms. Awesome dragons. Awesome ex-spouses . . . You get the idea.

Language evolves. This I am not disputing. But I do wonder whether “awesome” hasn’t lost some of its awesomeness? And I wonder if we care?

6 Comments

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6 Comments on "Is “awesome” still awesome?"

Jacoub Bondre
May 25, 2010 @ 12:45 pm

Awesome still means awesome to me. I try to either use it when something really takes me back a bit, or in absolute sarcasm.

ie: This comment is awesome . . . AWESOME!
Stuart Thursby
May 25, 2010 @ 12:47 pm

Awesome still means awesome…

…but it’s in the same vein of “awkward”, “engagement” and my personal favourites of “guru” or “ninja” for extremely over-used terms of recent years
Stuart Thursby
May 25, 2010 @ 12:48 pm

Which makes this-decade’s “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” read as “the awkward ninja engaged with the awesome guru.”

Except for the letter Z. But nobody likes Z.
Tweets that mention Is “awesome” still awesome? « Big Orange Slide -- Topsy.com
May 25, 2010 @ 1:05 pm

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jacoub Bondre, Grip Limited. Grip Limited said: Today on the Slide: Is “awesome” still awesome? http://bit.ly/dmGwyI #GripLtd [...]
c jones
May 26, 2010 @ 2:02 pm

Funny post. I actually read something in a similar vain here:

WTF IS GOIN DWN IN COMMUNICATION?

Deals with text messages and twitter and how they are affecting students writing.
Ameet
May 29, 2010 @ 9:06 pm

Just as I had read this on Friday, I am sitting here watching the hockey game and voila.. A tim hortons commercial appears which is focused on the word AWESOME..

Too funny and yes I agree, its just an amazing word.