The 1990’s withstood the nauseating overuse of totally and like. Example: That’s like, totally cool, you know? Or maybe that was the 1980’s. I forget. It’s all a blur.
That means, I suppose, that the new millennium has to have its own nauseatingly overused word, too.
The word is awesome.
You hear people everywhere saying it—young, old, in-between—it doesn’t matter. Everything is awesome. The day is awesome. The food is awesome. Her new coat is awesome. He’s so totally awesome. Ugh…
If the whole dang world is awesome, what word do we use when something is truly…awesome?
Webster’s defines awesome as “inspiring admiration or wonder.” If Webster can be believed then awesome should be reserved for when you gaze across the Grand Canyon or when you spot the Big Dipper in a blue-black sky or even when you spot the Chicago skyline gleaming against Lake Michigan from a plane on a cloudless day. Now that’s awesome. But, a coat? A cheeseburger? Some cute guy you met at work? Are those really examples of true awesomeness as compared to the Grand Canyon? Hardly.
It would be totally awesome if people could just be original now and then and try new words rather than simply parroting the ones they hear over and over. And over. Until it almost begins to sound normal and your head feels like it will implode.
::Writer X also writes at The 100 Most Annoying Things::