David Sedaris has made his name as a humorist, noting the absurdities of everything from life with his parents and siblings to the perpetual cycle of world travel and book-signing into which fame has launched him. But as his longtime readers know, he’s really a student of language: not only has his own voice on the page been shaped by close observation of English, he’s studied and continues to study a host of foreign languages as well. Longtime readers will remember how much material he got out of the French classes that gave his book Me Talk Pretty One Day its title, and he has more recently written of his struggles to get a handle on such diverse tongues as German, Japanese, and Slovene. (I myself wrote an essay about Sedaris’ language-learning in the Los Angeles Review of Books.)
Though he’s never explicitly cited it as part of his writing process, these studies have clearly honed Sedaris’ ear for language in general, especially when it comes to its local tics and eccentricities. “In France the most often used word is ‘connerie,’ which means ‘bullshit,’ ” he says in the audiobook clip at the top of the post from his latest collection Calypso, “and in America it’s hands-down ‘awesome,’ which has replaced ‘incredible,’ ‘good,’ and even ‘just OK.’ Pretty much everything that isn’t terrible is awesome in America now.” What once denoted a sight or experience filled with the emotion of “dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime” has become, in Sedaris’ view, a synonym for “fine.”
“It just got out of hand to me,” Sedaris explains to USA Today. “Everything’s awesome all the time. I was in Boulder, Colorado” — a city he has elsewhere described as “the ‘awesome’ capital” — “and someone said, ‘I’ll have a double espresso, awesome,’ and the other person said, ‘Awesome.’ ”
(In another interview, he mentions that he often fines people “a dollar a time at events for using the A‑word. I warn them first, because it’s only fair, but I can make pretty good money that way.”) This may sound like a futile objection to inevitable linguistic change, but only to those who haven’t noticed the underlying debasement of meaning. If “awesome” can now describe a coffee, what word, if any, indicates genuine awe?
A similar fate has befallen other English words and expressions. “Great” preceded “awesome” into the semantic haze, and “to beg the question” has become a standard example of a phrase to whose original meaning only a pedant would cling. People now often use it synonymously with “raising the question,” but if we accept that as its meaning, we’re left with no way to refer to question-begging itself, a rhetorical practice still as rampant as ever. To criticize the modern loosening of these usages is to keep sharp and complete one’s array of tools for expression and communication; we condemn the overuse of a word not out of pure hatred but out of understanding the necessity of its true meaning. Even David Sedaris grants “awesome” its proper time and place: “I went to the Great Wall of China once, and I have to say, that was awesome. But that’s the only thing I can think of. Not a latte.”
Related Content:
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Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall, on Facebook, or on Instagram.
I’m glad I’m not around so many dummies that I’d think the correct definition of “begging the question” is “a phrase to whose original meaning only a pedant would cling.” Likewise, I’m completely with Sedaris on “awesome.” His attack on the watering-down of that word is…great.
I think David has lived in France too long. He’s become one of those cranky French people. Maybe Americans should say bullshit more often like the French.
Fortunately, here in Australia ‘awesome’ is ‘trending out’. You definitely hear it spoken less often nowadays. However, the ‘verbumistas’ will not be thwarted and they have quickly settled upon an awesome replacement: ‘perfect’.
‘Perfect’ seems to arise most often in a question and answer context, where one undergoes an interrogation. I was receiving treatment in hospital recently and was questioned by a young female nurse about whether I had experienced any reactions to the medication. She would enquire about things like, “Was your appetite affected?’. I replied, “No, but I found the food I ate was tasteless”. The nurse’s immediate response was, “Perfect”.
I was pleased to know I had answered correctly but, at the same time, was intrigued to know how I had apparently achieved such a high level of correctness. Was my reply to the nurse’s enquiry really ‘perfect’? She told me it was just the answer she wanted to hear. Awesome.
His sister Amy turns me on but David just makes me think.
OMG — loved listening to him, this reading from “Calpso” was wonderful. He’s brilliant!
Oh, I so agree! The catch phrases can take you over the edge, especially for people who have the ear. I listened to a podcast about sailing recently where the catch word was GNARLY. Everything was “gnarly”. It was hard to follow the information once you senses are overwhelmed.
Peggy
The use of “perfect” by wait staff is so strange.
“How is your meal?“the waitress asks. “Good,” I reply, “thanks.” “Perfect!” she beams as she walks off without refilling my water glass.
I said the meal was good, but no mere burger at a diner is “perfect.” God may be perfect, but not sure about anything else in this temporal world.
I have wondered if it something from their employee evaluation forms creeping into their speech.
John Martin is an Artist whose work could be described as awesome. BUT the other big bad over used word is ENJOY Ivan Hicks.
My message is the other word I hate is ENJOY
Touché!
Okay, Grumpy Man.
“If ‘awesome’ can now describe a coffee, what word, if any, indicates genuine awe?”
How about glorious, heavenly, wonderful, sublime, gobsmacking, beautiful, lovely, joyous, delightful, mind-blowing, awe-inspiring, wondrous, breathtaking, stupefying, magnificent.…? Shall I go on?
I like ‘awesome’—it’s happily exclamatory, like ‘farout’ or ‘cherry’ or ‘rad’ or ‘neato’. The English language is fun (dare I say awesome) Mr. Stick-up-your-butt.
Have an awesome day! 😂
(You can have even more awesomeness by combining adjectives, turning one into an adverb: joyously delightful, gobsmackingly beautiful, magnificently breathtaking, etc.)