I have no trouble with neologisms, clever sayings that make their way into the Anglo-Saxon language.  But I do have trouble with an affectation which is widely spread among all age groups who speak the American version of the English language.  The most recent such word is “awesome.”
I have always thought that our exploration of the moon’s surface was indeed awesome.  There are things on this earth that are also awesome.   The Grand Canyon comes to mind.  There are craters a mile deep and several miles wide.  That is awesome to me.  But that word has found its way into the Anglo-Saxon language that we speak and I find it being misapplied and misused.
For example, a few years back I was impressed by the manager of our local bank and I wrote a letter to the head man of J.P. Morgan Chase.  Interestingly, he and his assistant both replied to my letter of commendation.  Later when I had occasion to visit the bank, the manager told me that my letter was “awesome.”  If he had told me that it was very pleasant to receive recognition for the service that he had provided or that he was happy to advance services adequate for my use, I would have been greatly pleased.  The bank manager, who I think is a bit of a treasure, used the word “awesome.”  He was a man in his early thirties and I think that by this time should have known and used a more appropriate term.  I was happy to receive the compliment but I thought that the use of the term “awesome” was a bit much.
At the end of May, I made a small presentation to a fourth grade class,  at the conclusion of which I had the teacher ask if each child would come forward and shake my hand and tell me his or her name.  It was a gorgeous time for all, and when the hand shaking was completed, a youngster, perhaps ten years old, remarked that shaking my hand was “awesome.”  I am delighted that this youngster was impressed but I try not to let it go to my head.  I simply say that this youngster was ten years old and that shaking the hand of an old-timer like myself is not really awesome.  If the youngster concluded that shaking my hand was an awesome fact of life, I will accept it.
I had always reserved “awesome” for things such as the Himalayan Mountains or Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.  But it appears that the word “awesome” might have a longer life span than I had anticipated.  I will not use that word myself and I will cringe a bit when it is used by others, even a ten-year-old boy.  If they want to call my handshake and my letter “awesome,” I will gracefully accept their opinion.
It could well be that my dislike of “awesome” is a matter of prejudice.  If that is the case, I freely admit it.  But I would also point out that a fellow of advanced years such as myself is entitled to prejudicial conduct from time to time.
 
E. E. CARR
May 31, 2011
Essay 555
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Kevin’s commentary: I will happily file this one away under “objections to modernity” which is probably the most awesome category ever.
I feel like words to describe progressive levels of goodness should be excused from the more rigid conventions of language in that they vary deeply based on fads, maybe moreso than any other grouping of words, and certainly more than any other grouping of words that comes to me at time of writing this.
All I can tell Pop is that perhaps “awesome” will fall out of fashion soon.