What if its neither? “Amazingly” to mean very is about the least useful or interesting application of “amazing.”
I agree. Amazingly WHAT? Neither “amazing” nor “amazingly” alone tells you anything.
No, I disagree. It tells you they were amazed. To be amazed is a mind-state in its own right, not just a superlative of something else.
Which is not to say that “the new restaurant was amazing” generally describes such a state. They just mean it was quite good.
Has anyone mentioned yet the overusage (or any usage) of the word “insane” to mean (as best I can figure) simply “remarkable” or maybe “remarkably strange” or something? You see it a lot on sites like Cracked and Mental Floss.
Sorry, “amazing” doesn’t convey anything informative or interesting to me as the listener. If you want to gaze at your navel and contemplate the *amazing *restaurant, blind date, or touchdown, you can do that alone, but I want more than a one-word label for your state of mind-- I want details.
In other news, Esquireonline has an article with additional words/expressions to hate. The comments are good, too.