# Awesome! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 7, 2016, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330 "2016-07-07T19:40:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/1 "2016-07-07T19:40:22Z")
About when did “awesome” loose its original meaning and become a synonym for just about anything that is not terrible? It sure is an awesome word. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/2 "2016-07-07T19:50:10Z")
Yeah. I wish I could quit saying it! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/3 "2016-07-07T19:52:11Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > About when did “awesome” loose its original meaning I wasn’t aware that a word was capable of letting go of something, since it is not even an object, let alone an animate one. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/4 "2016-07-07T23:34:17Z")
Couldn’t tell you when it began drifting away from a meaning of “inspiring awe” to a more common meaning of “very good” or “impressive,” but change was pretty clearly at work, if not fully established, quite some time ago: CS Lewis, 1954, letter to a child, “Eustace as a dragon is your best [artwork] yet. Really awesome!” ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/5 "2016-07-08T03:17:39Z")
I asked a similar question a while back regarding the use of the word ‘terrific’, mostly because back in the 30s the reporter describing the Hindenburg fire calls it, _“…a terrific crash…”_. Today it’s exclusively a superlative, but originally it must have been to terror what horrific was to horror. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/6 "2016-07-08T03:38:40Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > I asked a similar question a while back regarding the use of the word ‘terrific’, mostly because back in the 30s the reporter describing the Hindenburg fire calls it, _“…a terrific crash…”_. Today it’s exclusively a superlative, but originally it must have been to terror what horrific was to horror. Yup… “But to him who’s scientific There is nothing that’s terrific In the falling of a flight of thunderbolts.” WS Gilbert, late 1800s ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/7 "2016-07-08T06:30:26Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > About when did “awesome” loose its original meaning . . . Around the same time that “loose” lost its original spelling. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/8 "2016-07-08T13:53:28Z")
It just so happens that I invented awesomeness. People are surprised to hear this because I don’t practice it very often. In fact, awesome has not lost it’s original meaning, instead everything is a lot more awesome than it used to be making awesomeness a less awesome characteristic than it used to be. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/9 "2016-07-08T14:03:17Z")
I can’t answer your question, **Geoff** , but I think it’s awesome every time I see a post from you on this board. I’m glad you’re still around! ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/10 "2016-07-08T14:30:35Z")
Awesome Terrific Fantastic Sensational Phenomenal Tremendous 74westy’s Law: Every word that originally meant “extremely \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_” will eventually come to mean “really good”. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/11 "2016-07-08T16:16:45Z")
According Lego philosophy, _everything_ is awesome. ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/12 "2016-07-08T16:19:11Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > I can’t answer your question, **Geoff** , but I think it’s awesome every time I see a post from you on this board. I’m glad you’re still around! Thanks. I’ll be 89 next month, so probably be around for another 20 years or so. Wouldn’t that be awesome? **Panache45** , I really do know when to use “lose” but have a new wireless keyboard that looooves to make me use extra keys. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/awesome/759330/13 "2016-07-08T16:31:59Z")
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#): > > About when did “awesome” loose its original meaning and become a synonym for just about anything that is not terrible? > > It sure is an awesome word. 😃 In the 80s, dude! About the same time “stoked” took on a different meaning. and “gnarly”. 🙂