Jul 25, 2008
10 words that once meant something more specific, but can now mean really good.
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1. Excellent
2. Exceptional
3. Extraordinary
4. Fantastic
5. Incredible
6. Magnificent
7. Marvelous
8. Spectacular
9. Terrific
10. Wonderful
How’s the word awesome different that we should maintain its old definition?
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Also ‘decent’ and ‘great’.
I’m not sure I’m understanding the question. I would put Awesome in that list as well.
Yeah, me too. But you hear people now and again wanting to preserve “awesome.” Like in this comment thread.
I’m curious why “awesome” and not usually any of these others?
Rich Mullins.
I’m all for preserving any of the extreme words. C.S. Lewis has some advice that I’ve grown to appreciate. It has challenged me to think more about the words I choose. Also, I think this has also helped me to listen–take away the pat answers of “awesome” or “excellent,” I now need to pay attention and communicate a more heart-felt response. I personally need to also ban “oh, that’s good/nice.”
Not sure why “awesome” would be called out specifically and not the others.
I think that awesome is different because the others are words we describe something with.
Awesome (to me at least) describes something that inspires those words in response… something so big and magnificent and wonderful that awe is the only appropriate response.
But, I know that I am running in a circle here.
How about “amazing?”
I think that the word “terrible” is closer to the real meaning of awesome than the current slang meaning is.
Or, if you know Don Whitney, there is the constant correction of the usage of the word “awesome” when in his presence. My personal favorite:
‘No, portable outhouses are not awesome. God is awesome.’
And the word terrific actually comes from the word terror. So, terrific meant terrifying before it meant really good.
I’m guessing the change had something to do with roller-coasters.
All this is why we should sanctify the word “rad”. Unless you live in SoCal, it’s otherwise unused.
I’ll also have to add “crazy”…I unfortunately use that to mean really good and a little unbelievable at the same time. I think it confuses some though…
Bruce – that’s how awesome was, once upon a time. It was something that inspired awe, a mixture of wonder and dread.
Now in the culture, it just means “dude, that thing is cool”. Which is really annoying, because I think we’ve lost a good word – but it is what it is.
(And for the record, I use awesome in both senses talked about here.)
Eric I agree with Don Whitney. I have always thought that the word awesome should only be used to descirbe God.
why not just use “awe-inducing” or something when describing God? or retain “awesome,” but know that it’s going to be an in-group word (only Christians are going to know what you mean if used in the secondary sense). you can’t stop the motion of the ocean or the sun in the sky (to quote Hairspray) and i don’t think you can do much about semantic change, either, especially in the self-mediated information age.
but in consolation, Eddie Izzard has something to say in sympathy with those who lament the loss of “awesome” to portable outhouses and hot dogs.
If you look up awe (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=awe) you see that clearly awesome(something inspiring awe) is being used improperly when you say that outhouses and hot dogs and your new scooter inspire awe in you. They just don’t. If they do, you’ve got bigger issues than misuse of the english language. In my opinion, awesome is one word that whether misused or not, the ONLY thing that will ever be able to fill the definition is God.
I love these examples of the interaction of denotation and connotation, where words that can, in some metaphorical sense, be taken to mean something common (like “really good”) come, through common use in that sense, to actually, primarily have that common meaning.
Also, I think it’s important to remember that even as we’re “losing” interesting words to less-specific usage, we’re also gaining tons and tons and tons of words that come into the mainstream, standard language from sociolects/dialects (like Black American English, a socio-/dialect of English recognized by linguists, or something more vague like surfer-speak that becomes widely popular). Which words lose their specific meanings and which slang terms we adopt says a lot about what concepts people find relevant, and those concepts are always changing.
Finally, from all of this it follows that dictionaries are doomed to play catch-up by their very nature. No-one (or very few people) carry a dictionary around to double check the meanings of words their using in their everyday speech and thought. Language exists first and foremost in the heads of its users. Words mean precisely what we think they mean when we use them or someone else uses them talking to us, and the best dictionaries can hope to do is describe trends in usage across a population.
I think I’d have to add the word “Smashing” to your list. :)