This post is not awesome. It might be inspirational. It might be dazzling. It might be delightful. But awesome? No.
The Pyramids are awesome. The Great Wall of China is awesome. The stupidity of the American voter is awesome.
Last week, I heard a teenage girl say: "Chelsea just got a tattoo of Justin Bieber on her arm! Isn't that awesome?"
No.
On the other hand, if 15 year-old Chelsea got a tattoo of Fyodor Dostoevsky on her arm then yes, that would be awesome, since Chelsea spends her day walking around with iPod plugs in her ears while using her iPhone to text mindless drivel to her equally unconscious friends, Megan and Autumn.
Last Thanksgiving, one of my daughter's friends referred to my wife's rhubarb pie as super awesome. Rhubarb pie isn't even any good, let alone super anything. Plus the term is halfway to being redundant. If extraterrestrials with a cure for cancer landed in my backyard that would be super awesome.
The Brits' version of awesome is the overused, insufferable term brilliant, as in:
Lady Dumpleton: "I got a tattoo of Winston Churchill on my left buttock yesterday."
Lady Fluffington: "Brilliant."
True, Churchill was indeed brilliant, but the transference of his likeness upon the posterior of Lady Dumpleton is most certainly not.
The rules of use for the word brilliant are as follows: if you were to say “the sun is brilliant”you’d be right. If you were to say “Einstein was brilliant,” you’d be right. If you were to say “Prince Charles is brilliant”you’d be wrong.
In the Sixties, cool stuff was referred to as either far out or out of sight, but in the Sixties, everybody was stoned, so those two terms -- neither of them as moronic as awesome -- don't really count. After all, this was the generation that also gave us copacetic, groovy and Herman's Hermits.
In the 1920s, really swell things were described as the cat’s pajamas, a far cry from awesome. Why the concept of feline bedclothes would make something impressive is known only to the cat in question and its psychiatrist.
The ancient Romans had their own version of awesome. Flavius meets Clavius in the agora and says, “Dude, your toga is, like, totally caesarean.” Or whatever.
Here’s the basic question: have we become so lazy, so unimaginative, so staggeringly insipid that we can only think of one adjective to describe everything? Your computer has a Thesaurus, folks. It’s three mouse clicks away. If that’s too much effort, have an energy drink. Roget needs the royalties.
Photos courtesy of: keralaarticles.blogspot.com, explain-italian-culture.com, ciialli.com, singlespeedstella.com, 3.p.blogspot.com
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rated with hugs
`R
Yeah..... I'd shoot me too if I did that. But you must give Tink special dispensation to use it. Our favourite cat humourist would practically be mute without it....... ;-)
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I feel like awesome has fallen to the fate of the F-word. It's used so much it has absolutelyno meaning.
I love rhubarb pie. I might say scrumptious instead of awesome.
I would never have the courage to dis a homemade pie on the interwebs.
rated
... fully funny.
Magnificently superb for-the-ages post!
Rated.
I'm with you but I find myself using it when talking with my kids. "That's nice" or "That's very good." or even "excellent" doesn't seem to drive it home for them.
rated (cause I know you hate lol and awesome)
-R-
Greatly expressed!
Lezlie
P.S. How do you feel about "amazing?" Yeah, me too.
....oops.
R
None of the phrases from other eras (great reminders BTW) because they had a finite measure -- they created a standard for their times. For me the word awesome is not a standard...it creates an image of the infinite, never-ending, something truly beyond our experience.
There ain't much in my life that is beyond fabulous. Life can be good, great, interesting et al...but awesome?? Not really. I too cringe every time I hear the word...At least in other decades we created new language, now we're just killing it.
Thanks John.
I am an adjunct at a community college, and I hear my students use "awesome" all the time. It made me grit my teeth some 12 years earlier when I started hearing it more frequently.
I still don't care for its liberal use. I prefer to reserve it for things that truly inspire awe in me. That way, it really does mean something. But it has lost most of its meaning now, and I must admit that I don't notice it anymore.
More's the pity, I guess. Words are tools, but you have to use the right word for the right job, just as you would want to use the right tool for the right job. It is absurd, for example, to drive a nail using a sledgehammer. And that is what the indiscriminate use of "awesome" is -- the wrong tool for the wrong job.
I bought the "Dimwits Dictionary" and reserved the “Uncommon Words Dictionary” and the thesaurus for the more intelligent professors. It had 5,000 over used words and phrases with alternate endings to them. You could write with egregious English, uneducated English, everyday English, or elegant English. The next paper I wrote I threw in a little of the everyday English and a few of the dimwitted redundant phrases in and the professor was happy. The professor was happy with my next paper.
(Rated for awesomeness)
♥
I hate awesome.
The English language is so rich in words that it's such a shame to sometimes find people who are so inarticulate in their speech and writing. On one hand.
On the other, one of the glories of English is it's malleability, which is probably the reason it really is the "lingua franca" of the world now.
Awesome post, though.
Yeah, and it's really epic.
"My cable is out again. It's the third time today."
"I hear what you're saying. Let's see if we can find the problem."
"Let's."
"Is the problem on every channel?"
"Yes."
"Perfect. May I put you on hold?"
"I have been on hold for half an hour."
"I hear what you're saying. May I put you on hold now?"
"Yes."
"Perfect."
(About 23,900,000 results [0.09 seconds])
What do you mean, AWESOME?
**Runs off stage in tears**
Oh, and one more thing: when you used the word "rankles" (regarding my blog), you became even better looking to me.
(bares fang)
Yes, I'm guilty for using it. Perhaps, I can revise my New Year's resolution list.
If we're to believe Meredith Wilson, "swell" was a scandalous term in River City, Iowa. "Neat-O" remains above the fray.
Your question was awesome and sent me scurrying. . .
Main Entry:thesaurus
Part of Speech: noun
Synonyms: glossary, lexicon, onomasticon, sourcebook, terminology, vocabulary
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2011 by the Philip Lief Group.
Also covet your blog title. ;)
You might appreciate this...my rant about that OTHER "A" word: http://open.salon.com/blog/marcie_j/2010/05/30/its_like_so_amazing