| Yesterday morning I went to a coffee shop in Andersonville. An abundantly-pierced young person took my order for a latte, and asked if I wanted anything else. I asked for a peach danish, to which they responded “amazing.” They asked me for my name so they could call me when the latte was ready. When I told them my name was Sam, they surprised me by again saying “Amazing”. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to have my name called amazing. The profuse use of the word is well-known, and you can find many discussions of it on the web. It’s part of a phenomenon called semantic bleaching, in which as words are used more often they lose their original distinctive meaning and become more generic. I’ve noticed this with the word “incredible”, which is now so common that it has come to mean nothing more than “very”. I think this sort of thing is universal, but Americans seem to do it with an enthusiasm that impresses people from other countries. To express approval in Catalan it’s usual to say “Molt bé” which just means “very good”. In the same circumstance even I would be likely to say “great”, and those a decade or two younger would probably say “incredible” or maybe even “amazing”. |
| Created on 22 August 2024, updated on 22 August 2024 by Samuel Ethan Fox |
| Comments on this entry |
| Brit's Lawrence J. Moss |
| Brits on TV say exclaim "brilliant" a lot. That too seems somewhat debased. |
| that's awesome! Larry Moss |
| case in point |