Some things are not ‘awesome
And the winner is … “Awesome.” Of all the pet peeves you sent me over the past couple of weeks, all the verbal tics and errors that threaten to drive you crazy, this word received the largest number of thumbs down. One of those thumbs belonged to an octogenarian, Mac Price. Another was pointed by a 13-year-old, Rachel Kimmelman. I’ll let her explain:
“Lately I’ve been trying to stop people from using the word ‘awesome’ as something that is really cool. I think that ‘awesome’ is a great word, and has the potential to convey a lot of meaning (its real meaning is something that is expressive of awe, or that inspires awe) but we’ve used it too much, and over time, its meaning has decreased so much. These days, it’s used in a good percentage of sentences that come out of teenagers’ mouths, or even non-teenagers. It just means ‘cool.’ ”
Thank you, Rachel — you touched a nerve. I would add, in only the mildest defence of “awesome,” that half a century ago you might have been objecting to “cool” instead. For those of us who are part of a greyer generation, it’s good to know that some young people are as passionate about language as we are. Further evidence comes in the message I received from Maureen Powers:
“I often read your column aloud to my teenagers, who are just as particular with their use of English as I am. My teens would like to let you know that it drives them crazy to hear ‘If I was … ’ or ‘I wish I was … ’ My daughter in Secondary III had got most of her friends used to using ‘were,’ but then their English teacher said that although that was correct, it was more socially acceptable to use ‘was.’ Yikes!”
That’s a sad story — among teenagers, even more than the rest of us, the urge to be socially accepted is enormous. Ms. Powers added: “Two words that have popped up recently are driving me crazy: ‘obligated’ and ‘healthful.’ These sound like words people use to make themselves sound smarter than they are, but I’m not buying it. Does it mean that I am no longer obliged to eat healthy food?”
A couple of readers commented on the grandiose spread of “epic.” Dan Laxer made the point with elegant irony: “Whenever I hear that a party is going to be epic, I am inclined to ask if it will begin ‘in medias res’ (in the middle of things). And will there be a hero with a tragic flaw?” He is, however, a realist: “Language does indeed evolve, and words take on new meanings, leaving us purists in the proverbial dust.”
True enough, but certain battles are still worth fighting. David Garforth outlined one of them: “The bad use of language on the radio, particularly by sports reporters: e.g., ‘They want it just as bad.’ ‘They got beat.’ ‘The story died quick.’ ” In all those sentences, a one-syllable word has replaced a correct, two-syllable form. Another ungrammatical trend bothered Denise Chatelier: “It was very fun to watch.” She explained, “I know ‘fun’ can be a noun and an adjective, but the presence of ‘very’ makes it jarring to my ears.”
Two former editors at The Gazette weighed in with peeves of their own. Jim Withers deplored the “overuse of the word ‘different,’ as in ‘She speaks seven different languages.’ ‘Different’ in such cases is superfluous.” He also complained about the misuse of the noun “suspect,” saying “You hear it a lot in TV and radio, when the reporter says something like ‘The suspect escaped.’ If you aren’t identifying the perpetrator, there’s no need to avoid referring to the robber as ‘the robber,’ the assailant as ‘the assailant,’ etc.”
Doug Sweet, with pardonable exaggeration, decried “the death of ‘who’ and its replacement by ‘that,’ as in: ‘She’s a student that was active in the protest movement.’ Drives. Me. Crazy. (Also people who put periods between words to denote emphasis).”
Indeed. And the sheer volume of responses compels me to promise that I’ll return with more of your pet peeves in my next column. In the meantime, to quote the translator and editor John Woolfrey, I “hope your year brings you good fortune, but stop way short of wishing you an ‘awesome’ one, my number-one hated word!”