Literally Overused Words and Phrases – Awesome, Literally, Unique, “It’s All Good.” And a Word I’m Afraid of: Curmudgeon. In Five Posts:

Okay, so these next few posts may seem curmudgeonly to some, but we’ll get to that later.



The misuse of “awesome” is not awe-inspiring, but it’s so fashionable now to use “awesome” (or “amazing”) as the standard response to the smallest convenience or pleasure that I have to wonder if the actual meaning of the word is forgotten, or perhaps it was never fully understood, thus leaving us with one fewer word to describe the stupendous.

Conversation in a store:

Clerk: There’s something wrong with the credit card operation right now . .

Me: Well, here, I can pay cash.

Clerk: That would be AWESOME!


Conversation on the street:

First person: Looks like there’s 15 minutes left on this meter.

Second: That’s AWESOME, dude!


It’s actually kind of cute and kind of annoying all at once. It’s cute because people, mostly young people, say “awesome” with such conviction. It’s as if they’d suffered uniformly drab, disappointing lives up to that moment. “Tic tacs in colors other than white? AWESOME!!!” “There’s a bus-stop. AMAZING!!!”

“Really?” I want to ask. What word is left, then, for, say, comprehensive climate change legislation, a cure for cancer, the resurrection of John Lennon? And so the evocation of awe, previously reserved for the wonders akin to those given us in the Old Testament, annoys after awhile for the same reason that the misuse of “literally” annoys.

This brings to mind the current vogue in the expression of gratitude: “Thank you soooooo much!” which can be evoked by a gesture as simple as loaning a pen to someone for a moment. If such a simple courtesy evokes such gushing gratitude, what is left if I save that same person, moments later, from an oncoming car or a knife-wielding maniac?