A Vermont caller feels the word awesome is overused to the point of being almost meaningless. There’s a term for that. It’s called semantic weakening. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Semantic Weakening of Awesome”
Hi, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, this is Peter.
Hi, Peter. Where are you calling from?
I’m calling from Vermont.
Welcome to the show. How can we help?
Well, I just wanted to tell you about my experience with a word called awesome.
I was born in 1944, and back then the word awesome actually brought on a feeling of awe, such as taking a look down into the Grand Canyon.
But I noticed that that word has morphed to the point that if you go to a ball game, someone says, hey, the mustard on my hot dog was awesome.
And I kind of think that that word is being sort of cheated or watered down.
And I talked to my mother-in-law, who was born in 1920, and she agrees.
She says that word, back when she remembered it, had to do with a physical thing that happened, like conquering Mount Everest.
And it was a physical thing that then went into your body and had an effect on your soul.
So I just thought I’d tell you a little bit about my thinking about a word that has been watered down.
Maybe it was really good mustard.
Maybe that man went and changed his life, went to an ashram or something.
That’s right. Maybe it was Grand Canyon worthy.
But you’re right. There’s what’s called semantic weakening happening here with the word awesome.
It went from being a very powerful, heightened word to being something kind of mediocre and bland.
It’s true.
That’s one of the ways that the language changes.
We do it all together as a group.
There’s not much way that any one person or even a tiny group of people can stop that from happening, I’m afraid.
Peter, I’m wondering about how that makes you feel.
Are you irritated by it or are you just noting it?
Well, I can give you sort of an off-color use.
The other day I heard somebody who was late meeting his wife and he said, oh, the baby had an awesome diaper.
I have to say, it really is somewhat of a negative twist on that word, and I was irritated.
So I’m answering your question, yes.
I think the use of the word now is, it’s just been, it’s very irritating to my hearing, and also to Betty, my mother-in-law.
She says it’s irritating the way it’s used, and so the answer is yes.
So for you, the word is skunked.
That’s what we call a word where if you use it, you risk being misunderstood or misinterpreted.
So what do you use instead?
Well, I just use tremendous and great.
I actually don’t use the word awesome anymore because it doesn’t have much meaning to me in my generation.
And that’s so often what happens.
We’ve got words that are faddish.
They become hugely popular.
They’re the current thing to say.
People use them.
They’re all over the place.
And then everyone starts to collectively realize that they’re saying it too much and hearing it too much, and they stop using it, and we move on to something else.
Yeah, they realize that they’re using it lazily.
I mean, it’s almost like cuss words, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
Where you just revert to that, you just default to that, and don’t really think about exactly what it is about the mustard that you really liked.
Far out, man. Far out.
It’s gone.
The word no longer inspires awe, which I guess is the root base of the word.
Yes.
Tremendous, though.
Chicago Fire. I’m sure that was an awesome event.
Right.
Anyway, thanks for hearing my thoughts.
Yeah, sure. Thanks for calling, Peter. Really appreciate it.
All right. Bye-bye. Take care. Bye-bye.
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