A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1102

I predict you’ll hear from many dozens of others, if not hundreds or even thousands, who lament the overuse and watering down of the word awesome. I miss the power it once conveyed. I miss its potency. I was once complimented, “This is an awesome cup of coffee.” “No!,” I replied. “It’s excellent, or it’s delicious, perhaps. Maybe even unsurpassed. But a cup of coffee can never be awesome. Niagara Falls is awesome. The Grand Canyon is awesome. The stars overhead on the high desert at night, they are awesome! But not a cup of coffee.” Dear me! I have become my dad. At least I don’t loudly argue grammar or science with television commercials!
-Mark MacLeod, Champaign, Illinois (prairielark hotmail.com)

Just sharing that you’re not the only one frustrated with insipid words such as nice. For example, 40 years ago George Carlin, another master wordsmith, completely and inimitably agreed, also taking on fine and great. Worth your 3½ minutes.
-Brian Hoffman, Greenfield, Massachusetts (kabeyun mac.com)

Could all the guests, all the hosts, all the audiences, all the family members, all the fans, and practically every section of people you can think of, please stop being wonderful?!
-Sarma Rampalli, Narsapur, India (rbrsarma gmail.com)

I unsubscribed from Radiolab because the journalist introducing the show used “like” 16 times in the 90-second intro: “It was like really great to like see these kids like interact so like intelligently with people they’d never met, like they like asked interesting questions and like didn’t interrupt and it was like so encouraging ...” And on and on and on. Terry Gross on NPR does it now, too. I can’t listen to her anymore. I wrote to Radiolab, with a transcript of this ridiculous introduction and they wrote back and said that they “like to keep the man-on-the-street feel of their interviews.” I said, “She isn’t a man on the street! She is a journalist!!”
I have stopped listening to all radio because of this. And I don’t have a television. If journalists start writing the way they talk I’ll be forced to read only classical literature. Which wouldn’t be, like, bad.
-Susan Edsall, Kailua Kona, Hawaii (sjedsall gmail.com)

There is a cooking show that is followed by a program about building small living quarters. Both are filmed in England and are fun, even educational, to watch. However, both of these hosts will use some words to the point of distraction: “Amazing!” “Fantastic!” “Perfect!” “Incredible!” We just may hurt ourselves with the ensuing eye rolls.
-Alice Davis, Blacksburg, Virginia (glalice earthlink.net)

Surreal. I don’t believe most people even know the association with its origin. 100% overused.
-Robert Whatmough, Concord, New Hampshire (rj-mw comcast.net)

I began noticing the ubiquity of thrive a year or so ago and watched it reach its culminant phase in the last several months. Financial services firms, our local YMCA, and all manner of nonprofits, restaurants, churches, and healthcare organizations, everyone wants us to thrive. I’m hoping we’ve all thrived enough now and can look forward to leaning into and unpacking the next big thing.
-Jeff Disch, St. Paul, Minnesota (jeffdisch icloud.com)

The overused word of the year is absolutely, a four-syllable replacement for a simple yes response.
Diner: May I have some ketchup?
Waitress: Absolutely!
-Lawrence Moore, Folly Beach, South Carolina (lawrence5m bellsouth.net)

Overused adjective: unique or, even worse, very unique.
-Debra Kerr, Chicago, Illinois (deb art.org)

How about the use of the word perfect.
“What is your name?” “Steve.” “Perfect.”
“What is our reason for your stay here at the Holiday Inn?” “Business.” “Perfect.”
There is nothing perfect about a conversation. Responses like “very good” or “excellent choice” would be more appropriate.”
-Steve Wright, Roseville, California (papasteve41 icloud.com)

Two words that have lost meaning to me are brilliant and genius. If every person who writes a song or performs in a play can potentially be brilliant then they are really only nice; if every creator (“She’s a genius!”), invention (“It’s pure genius!”), and decision (“Genius move!”) can be described that way, then it’s really just “interesting”.
-Andrew Causey, Evanston, Illinois (drewland512 gmail.com)

The word guest. I got angry at the Post Office when the clerk said “Next guest, please.” The clerks at my drugstore use the same phrase. I am a customer. Not a guest.
-Louis Phillips, New York, New York (louisprofphillips gmail.com)

Overused word: like. I don’t like it.
-Marilyn Kagan, Providence, Rhode Island (busybeadermarilyn aol.com)

Incredible. Phenomenal. Perfect. And the exclamation point. Awesome used to lead the list, but, incredibly, it’s been overtaken by phenomenal! Which I think is just perfect!
-Greg Smith, Takoma Park, Maryland (gpsmith igc.org)

Stunning is a ridiculously overused word. The way it is flung about we should all be walking or lurching about in a state of permanent concussion.
-Judith Judson, Pittsford, New York (jjudson frontier.com)

Every problem is a crisis these days. Budget crisis, gender crisis, energy crisis, climate crisis, election crisis.
-Carl Hutchinson, Sutton, Massachusetts (quando.omni.flunkis.moritati gmail.com)

Email of the Week -- Brought to you buy One Up! -- The wickedest word game in the world.

The adjectives adorable and sweet are so overused I mentally delete them every thousandth time I see them. When connected with the British royal family, I do a double delete. And while most overused words appear to be adjectives, don’t get me started on mom. Moms for this and Moms for that. Do these women have any other self-identifying markers?
-Susan E. James, La Canada, California (searex earthlink.net)

Please may we retire iconic? Space telescopes, historical figures, acting professionals living and dead, automobile styling trends from sixty-five years ago -- iconic all?
-Richard Derus, Long Island, New York (rrmdd yahoo.com)

I imagine the next level must surely be overcrowded, given that we are bombarded with ads offering to help us improve our business, investing, hearing, sεx life, sports betting, air frying, gardening, workouts, and countless other aspects of our lives by taking them there.
-Torrence Hammond, Oak Park, Illinois (torrence.hammond fernwoodllc.com)

Fascist: current meaning “anybody whose views differ from mine.”
-Andrew Lack, Oxford, UK (ajlack brookes.ac.uk)

My college English professor, reminding us that we are in an honors class, said if we used the word very in our papers we would get an F.
-Andrea Jensen, Springfield, Virginia (frostedgroove gmail.com)

Incredible and its synonym unbelievable are being stripped of their original meanings, flogged in the political marketplace, and then nearly beaten to death by those who mean to say “superb” or “remarkable”, or even “noteworthy”. Hopefully, they will someday recover their formerly unambiguous clout, especially in the context of testimonial proceedings. “She made an incredible witness!” What does that mean these days?
-David Wiggins, Redondo Beach, California (dwiggins252 gmail.com)

Over the past year, the word unprecedented has been used in far too many Australian news bulletins, and also by politicians and others making excuses for why something has, or indeed hasn’t, happened. Initially, it was related to Covid numbers, but now it’s used for everything! It’s a fairly meaningless word, plus it’s rarely fact-checked. Let’s ban it!
-Paul Brassil, Sydney, Australia (pvbrassil gmail.com)

Create: It’s used for actions ranging from opening a new file to making a shopping list and assembling Ikea furniture.
Grab: grab a shower (not a thing one can actually grab), grab coffee (won’t it spill at the sudden motion?), grab lunch (where are your table manners?)
Tragedy/tragic: sometimes it’s just sad.
Beyond sheer annoyance, the underlying problem with these overused words is that they lose their inherent meaning. There’s no word left to express a real act of creation, such as the prehistoric first flute; the urgency to grab the cat before it knocks over that candle; or the truly tragic nuclear accident in Japan.
-Kate Daly, Langhorne, Pennsylvania (hammerwaterkate gmail.com)

Many of today’s overused words seem to spring from some infernal centralized marketing department: hack, curate, bespoke, and genius. As in “Use this hack to review our curated collection of bespoke tee-shirts - it’s genius!” Sigh...
-Rick Mead, Sebastopol, California (rick656 icloud.com)

I have a very fun time reading AWAD. It has led to an exponential growth in my vocabulary. It is literally the most unique newsletter of its kind. I find it interesting that Anu’s writing is (paradoxically?) surprisingly plain, devoid of unnecessary adjectives, never grandiloquent, but always clear.
-Ed Vitz, Kutztown, Pennsylvania (ed.vitz gmail.com)