This word ‘Awesome’
Our language is not a static thing. In my lifetime a whole new lexicon has come hurtling into our vocabulary.
Words like email, algorithm, iPad and cybercrime are just a few examples.
Words have also been consigned to the dustbin of inappropriateness and you can probably think of a few examples.
But others have taken a more circuitous route. They were popular once, faded away and now have come back to us, full of vitality and sparkle. Leaping off people’s tongues as though this was a whole new word.
One of these reimagined words is ‘Awesome’. We think of it as fresh and 21st century. The truth is it was being sung lustily in 1885 when Carl Boberg first penned the hymn ‘How Great Thou Art.’ The word ‘Awesome’ crops up in the 2nd line
When I, in awesome wonder…
What are we to make of the regurgitation words?
First, we must never discount a word and think that it can never be used again. It might seem outmoded, out of date, out of favour, but these pesky little words can resurface again in fresh and vital ways. This is because words have different interpretations and what might be appropriate for Awesome in1885 (The sense of formidable and alarming) can be interpreted afresh in 2023. (The sense of wonderful, impressive and jaw-dropping.)
Words also resurface because we change. Our society is very fluid and we continuously strive to articulate in our clunky, befuddling English language things that we can no longer describe. So sometimes we must reach back into a dictionary of yore to find the appropriate word.
This ongoing struggle to describe, articulate, and put into words is often futile. Sometimes a physical hug, a tear, a handshake or a smooch can be better than ‘Awesome’.