AWESOME ADJECTIVE (YOUTH CULTURE)

In North American slang (especially among young people): marvellous, great, stunningly good. Etymology: Awesome originally meant 'full of awe', but by the end of the seventeenth century could also be used in the sense 'inspiring awe, dreadful'. The apparent reversal of meaning that has now taken place started through a weakening of the word's meaning during the middle decades of the twentieth century to 'staggering, remarkable'; this was then further weakened and turned into an enthusiastic term of approval in the eighties. History and Usage: Within the youth culture, terms of approval come into fashion and go out again quite rapidly. After becoming frequent in its weakened sense of 'mind-boggling' during the sixties and seventies, awesome was taken up in the eighties as one of the most fashionable words of general approval among young Americans. In particular it was associated with the speech of preppies and the New York smart set, and often seemed to be part of a fixed phrase, preceded by totally. Surprisingly, it has remained popular among young people into the nineties, and has spread outside the US to Canada and Australia. It has been used in British English in this sense too, but really only in caricatures of US speech. Stuck in a rut...the kid was at the end of his rope when out of the blue... kaboom...'Awesome!! The Acclaim remote for Nintendo!' Captain America Nov. 1989, p. 7 Roxanne Shante is quite simply the baddest sister around, and teamed with Marley Marl at the mixing desk she is awesome. Number One 8 Nov. 1989, p. 43 That night I freebased a fractal of crack and blissed out on E. It was awesome. It was ace. It was wicked, bad and def. It was twenty quid. OUCH! Blitz Dec. 1989, p. 130