awesome

When I first started complaining about this "teenage" overworked phrase, I find that it has been around for at least 400 years. I had assumed that it was some coinage of a radio sports announcer.

Er ... you may well be right, but what phrase are you talking about?

Presumably awesome in a positive sense.

MWDEU has an ambiguous sports quote from 1925. In between that and the later ones it gives, Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang has a 1975 one about O.J.

"It was awesome!"

I think different generations use some words and phrases to define their own era. I can remember words like "groovy" "cool" "wicked" "terrific" used as frequently as "awesome" is today, with somewhat the same meaning.

If you don't like "awesome", you could always try using "splendid", as long as you don't mind everyone knowing (or presuming) that you're at least 75 years old. Or try "dandy", and make people think that you're over a hundred!
My favourite youth-slang term of approval is the mock-formal "most excellent".

When St. Paul's Cathedral (London) was new, someone praised it as awful, pompous, and artificial.
Awful/awesome - inspiring awe: makes sense to me.

"brilliant" is always a good filler in when "splendid and awsome" have been used up in the on going conversation. Very british.

Very British indeed. Which still leaves us Yanks stuck for a usable substitute.

You could try "faaaabulous". With or without "dahhhlink" tacked on. Assuming that you're on the west cost, and not, say, Oklahoma.

Neither: East Coast. Specifically, the home of such institutions as Junior's and Coney Island (and, apparently, Bruce Ratner -- but many of us wouldn't give him the time of day).

In Michigan, a Coney Island is a hot dog topped with meat chili and diced onions, presumably never heard at the real place in southern Brooklyn.

Wikipedia states that a coney dog in western New York state (a white dog) is a spicier version of the regular frankfurter.

Whoa, Coney dog?

I meant the place where you can see the following before sitting down to a burger & chocolate egg cream:

. . .

. . .

Fuhgeddaboudit! Awesome, shmawsome. Ya wanna know what's next after awesome? Get out into the 'hood and do some linguistic research. Grab a hot dog off the street cart -- simmering in hot water and topped with mustard then sauerkraut or onions in red sauce. Top that off with a slice of Junior's famous cheese cake. Light as a feather and smooth as silk. Walk around and listen.

Oh, AnnaClaire you've got me hankering for Brooklyn. I'm a lawnguylander so it's not too big a trip... As for Bruce Ratner---whatever! There's only one and only will be one NY b-ball team. The Knicks.

Mr. Andrew

Oklahoma Sucks to keep Texas from floating off into the Gulf of Mexico!

Now if Ratner wanted to bring the Dodgers back to Brooklyn, I might be a little less... unenthusiastic. ;)

The Dodgers! That would be AWESOME!

Baba
I have just recently come across this term for "father" and am curious about its etymology. The OED dismissed it as a derivative of maybe :"mama or papa", However, in all my years, I had not ever heard it used rather than "Daddy" or a variation thereof or "papa". I came across it in a video "Namesake" and a book, by Belle Yang, titled "Baba".

In the case of Belle Yang's excellent Baba, baba is an English spelling for the pronunciation of one of the Chinese terms for 'father'.

In the case of Belle Yang's book, I'd try asking her, as she's an LT'er and a lovely person -- but I've also heard "baba" for years now from my German/English bilingual nephew, as one of those early childhood mispronunciations of "papa" that sticks around as a nickname.

It's worth mentioning that "babbo" is "papa", "daddy" in Italian. "Baba" is common in a number of Slavic languages, meaning "grandma/grandmother", or "old woman", even "hag". ("Baka" is the gentler form for "grandma".)

Perhaps it is a phonetic/ease thing: easier, for babies, to pronounce "B" (labial) than "D" (aveolar). I have been in Email contact with Belle, exploring this; her view is much like the OED, a derivative of "papa"; she did not indicate that this was, in any way, connected to a Chinese term for father, however, that could be. I also mentioned to her that I had inquired about "Baba" on this list and she appaently checked this out and feels "warm" over the good things said about her, e.g., sabreuse.

jimroberts. "Awesome" is "awful" in both senses, particularly, in the modern sense. If you don't want to sound sarcastic, which I frequently am, a good "neutral" term is "interesting".

"Interesting" is my favorite word to use when I want to remain noncomittal about the subject at hand.

"Fascinating" is the word I use when wanting to interject a bit of sarcasm to the conversation.

If you get really sick of using "awesome," pick a totally random word and use that instead until everyone else gets equally sick of you. One of my suitemates likes to react to everything as being "ninjas." Another kid at my school says "fingers" if he likes something. The metalhead community has a longstanding tradition of saying everything they like is "metal" completely regardless of whether or not it has anything to do with metal whatsoever.

Eddie Izzard has a great spiel on the cheapening of the word "awesome," which involves an ad for "awesome" hot dogs, and an astronaut trying to describe the magnificent view of the Earth from the Moon as "awesome" and the President replying "What, like a hot dog?"

On a similar note: "I realize I say 'totally' way too much, so I decided I had to find another word with the same meaning and use that instead. Now if a friend's like 'Hey Mitch, do you like sub sandwiches?' I'll be like 'all-encompassingly!'" -Mitch Hedberg

(Eddie and Mitch are totally awesome. I mean metal. I mean ninjas.)

Interesting how "awful" probably started off meaning the person was full of awe - just has a helpful person helps a lot and a joyful person is full of joy. Someone might say "he felt awful when he saw the cathedral".
For some reason it morphed into describing something that inspired awe - "that cathedral is awful". Then it took on a negative meaning (when did that happen?) - again one might say "that cathedral is awful" in a totally different tone of voice. So "awesome" had to fill the gap.
Maybe "awesome" will end up being so over-used people will use it in a sarcastic tone (see #25 re fascinating) and it will go the same way as awful!

Here's my own idea of where the word "awe" comes from - the sound you make when your mouth falls open at the sight of something great - awww.......

Wait, #27, I thought awesome had already become so over-used that people use it in a sarcastic tone.

I just brought it back into my vocabulary because it's so oldschool and makes me sound like a dork. Maybe I acted too soon! No!

In high school I took German, and our class started using the word "dunkelblau" (dark blue) as the new "awesome." We actually managed to convince some of the freshman that it actually was the new hip thing to say.

Wie dunkelblau! I think I'll start using it, just to get a reaction out of my daughter & her friends!

Seth Lerer, a professor of linguistics, at Stanford University, in his 2nd edition lecture series, for the Teaching Company, is so apparently "wrung out". with "awesome", from his teenage son, that he declares that when, and only when, the messiah appears, THAT will deserve the term "awesome".

Stanley Schmidt, the editor of Analog SF magazine, felt that with the cheapening of the word 'awesome' that there is no term to describe the launch of the Space Shuttle. I mean, in person, not on TV. A very differenct experience, I'm sure.

Yes, the experience of the Space Shuttle's launch is very different in person that it is when viewing it on televison!

I feel more antipathy to using the word 'interesting'. I agree with others in that awesome is used best in those sarcastic moments.

As an alternative, how about 'grand'? A little bit elitist, maybe, but it has a certain charm.

Only one more month and we can celebrate the anniversary of the original post. Awesome.

I think it's awesome that you noticed, MrAndrew.

what's awesome is that >#11 was my first ever post on LT. I get a little teary-eyed whenever i see this thread resurrected. I like to think of it as my own personal zombie thread.