Recently I resolved to stop using "awesome" in everyday conversation. Ever since teenagers in the '80s unmoored the word from its original meaning (i.e., "inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear"), it's come to describe pretty much every non-negative emotion humans are capable of feeling. The word now means so many things that it's almost meaningless, and has become more of a verbal tic than anything else, a content-free piece of verbal clutter.
I took to the Esquire blog to share my resolution, and to call for readers to find alternatives to "awesome" in order to decrease their dependence and spice up their conversations. I offered a few suggestions, including "spectacular" (for a kind of classic feel) and "tight" (because I'm friends with an avid user of the word).
Our readers responded on Facebook with a slew of suggestions as well. Some of the suggestions were along the lines of "marvelous," "superb," and even "dandy," which all have an old-timey appeal. They seem like the kind of thing a character on Downton Abbey would say upon receiving a piece of good news like finding out a loved one had ducked a lethal influenza outbreak, possibly while twirling his mustache.
While some suggested returning to slang of a more recent vintage, like the hippie-era standbys "groovy," "heavy," and "cosmic," others proposed boldly moving into wild lexicographical territory with "scrumtrulescent" (popularized by Will Ferrell) and "blastastic." Others are still trying to make "fetch" happen.
One of my personal favorite alternatives comes from blogger Susie Lindau, who offered an entire range of replacements for words and phrases that were done to death in 2013. Her suggestion for a new "awesome"? "Hideous," which is a massive semantic curveball since its definition is almost the polar opposite of "awesome," but kind of just sounds right, and sort of suggests that whatever's being described is so incredible that it's repulsive. It's the same kind of hyperbole that put "awesome" on the slippery slope that's brought us to this point, but it also rolls off the tongue nicely. I can already imagine some kid at a skate park using it when someone lands an exceptionally gnarly trick.
But whatever you want to use instead of "awesome" is just dandy, as long as you're trying something new. In fact it might be for the best if each of us came up with our own personal alternative to the A-word. "Awesome" has become an oppressive Tower of Babel of casual slang, uniting all of us in its use while detracting from the richness of having these little personalized quirks in our language. Let's tear it down and replace it with a multitude of dandy, scrumtrulescent choices.
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