“Awesome” has it lost its meaning?

[Marc Friedland]

I believe in today’s world many people over-use the word awesome to such a large degree that it’s pretty much meaningless – and now it’s just another word to indicate that someone or something is OK, adequate, nice, average or pretty good.

I used to think of the word as meaning better than terrific, so fantastically good it’s almost unbelievable – maybe only a handful of people on earth are capable of accomplishing such a feat. But it appears that a lot of people use the word differently.

Jimi Hendrix may qualify to some people as an awesome guitarist, but when I read a Craigslist ad that says “awesome guitar player needed” I think they probably don’t really mean it and in many cases a “good guitar player” is closer to what they’re really looking for.

Example:
Someone just told you they won a billion dollars in the lottery and they’re going to give you 10 million dollars
It would be appropriate to say “that’s awesome”

If someone says they’ll call you later, they have to finish running some errands after work before they go home
I don’t think it’s appropriate to say “That’s awesome - have an awesome day”
I think the better reply would be – “OK, that sounds good I’ll talk to you later”

Don’t get me wrong – generally speaking I think positive thinking and positive confirmation can be good tools to getting by in life and it’s not my intention to judge people who define awesome differently than I do – it’s just I find it confusing when people change the definitions of commonly used words.

Does anyone know – has the definition of the word awesome actually changed?
Maybe I’m that far behind the times. If so, I’m not ashamed to admit it.

-- Marc

www.PedalSteelGuitarMusic.com

[Jerry Overstreet]

Marc, I can't remember how many times I've thought this very same thing. Add to that the words amazing and phenomenal.

Adjectives people use to describe just ordinary things.

I have an autographed picture of a sweet young girl that I played some music with. She signed "to an awesome steel player", well as much as I appreciate the sentiment, I'm just simply not awesome.

Adequate, maybe pretty good even, but far from awe inspiring.

If you're behind the times, then I'd say you have lots of company

[Nick Powers]

"Awesome" (along with a few other words) needs a Very long rest.

[Leslie Ehrlich]

Someone just told you they won a billion dollars in the lottery

I can remember a time when the largest lottery prize was one million dollars. That amount seemed awesome.

A billion dollars? It's amazing how the greed has gotten so out of control.

[Archie Nicol R.I.P.]

I'm from the UK. Never used the word.

Arch.

[CrowBear Schmitt]

" Heavy " " Groovy" & "Far out " were popular too back when
they all come & go

[Jim Cohen]

I'm from the UK. Never used the word.

Well, the Brits have their own inflated terms. One that comes immediately to mind is "brilliant" which, as far as I can discern, in UK just means "great" or sometimes just "okay!" as in, "I'll ring you up in the morning." "Brilliant". It has nothing to do with mental acuity.

" Heavy " " Groovy" & "Far out " were popular too back when
they all come & go

Oops. You mean it's time for me to stop saying "Groovy"?

[Kevin Lichtsinn]

Spiffy

[Jeff Garden]

And there are even degrees of awesome, Marc, as in ....totally awesome! (as opposed to partially awesome dude??)

Jimbeaux you beat me to it. I lived in the UK for 3 years in a prior life. After discovering, much to my dismay, that daily life wasn't a continuous Monty Python or Benny Hill episode, I found typical British understatement was often supplemented with terms like "excellent! extraordinary! brilliant! wizard! smashing!"

[Archie Nicol R.I.P.]

`The dog's bollocks` is a popular replacement for `awesome` over here.

Arch.

[Andy Sandoval]

What a "bitchin" topic

[Kirk Eipper]

This topic is really"Boss"

[Mark van Allen]

Sad to say, I do remember when 'Groovy' was Rad. Sigh.

[Mike Neer]

Not as much as "genius" has.

[Jeff Garden]

and suddenly everyone is "iconic"

[Lee Baucum]

It has been my observation that the word "awesome" has been replaced by the word "amazing".

[David Mason]

Given that this is (sometimes) a music forum, maybe all you musicians can tell me how somebody can have a #1 hit single - before it's released - and be an "international superstar" - that nobody's heard of.

"Introducing the latest international superstar".... umm, if you're just now introducing them, how did they...?? I understand the part about becoming a "legendary" "icon" - it takes TWO songs - but everything does seem to be happening pretty quick these days.

[Marc Friedland]

To my knowledge some of the words that are being mentioned never had an official definition before coming into being, they’re slang words.
Example – Groovy
As far as I know this word basically still means the same thing today as it did 45 years ago. (Admittedly - only a few folks like Jim Cohen & me still use the term frequently)
Whereas “awesome” had a defined meaning and now with its overuse (by the younger population) the original meaning has been downgraded and replaced with a more generic definition.

I once got a job from an ad that said they were looking for awesome musicians
It was at that point I realized that in today’s world I should probably replace the word awesome with “adequate” or “pretty good”

-- Marc

[Brint Hannay]

Outta sight!

[Donny Hinson]

Heavy topic, man, heavy.

Here's what the urban dictionaty has to say:

Awesome
An overused adjective intended to denote something as "cool" or "great" but instead winds up meaning "lame." This is actually a reflection of the lameness of person using the word, the degree of which is directly proportionate to difference between the user's perspective of the so-called awesome object / person / situation and that of a reasonably sober, well-informed observer.

For real, like...this topic is too much.

[Alan Brookes]

Ironically, awesome and awful used to mean the same thing, and they still do in some parts of the world.

I'm reminded of the English professor who was seeing his son off to college for the first time.
"My boy," he said, "you need to make a good impression on people, so there are two words I want you to avoid, and they're awesome and gross."
"Okay Dad," said the son, "which are the awesome and gross words you don't want me to use ?"

[Dan Galysh]

I know, right?

[b0b]

Off topic. Closed.