But it's awesome

Okay. So, first up: Language changes. I admit I used to be more of what is sometimes called a "prescriptivist" (shout-out to all the linguistics classes I took to fulfill my Social Science distribution requirement) than I am now.

And yes, for years I felt kind of bad about my casual use of "awesome" - I use it as a term of approbation (e.g., a student tells me they got into a tough PA school: "Awesome! Congratulations") or to describe things I like (or, alternatively, dislike - "That's not awesome.")

And yes, the original meaning was "inspiring awe" and there are relatively few things that might be reserved for - a sunset, a landscape, something that shows you the power of the Divine.

But also, with both hippies and Valley girls, it took on a different meaning, closer to the "casual" usage I noted. And I admit, sometimes I use it slightly ironically. And I had tried to dial back on it but a person's teen years* stay with them a long time.

(*No, I was not actually a Valley Girl but I grew up in the era and the slang was around)

Anyway, today (or maybe yesterday, Neil de Grasse Tyson declared:

"In my day, the word “Awesome" was reserved for things like curing Polio and walking on the Moon, not for food or TV shows."

Okay. I feel about NdGT's linguistic arbitration about like how I feel about Richard Dawkins holding forth on anything BUT Evolutionary Biology: "Who died and made you King?"

I mean, just because the guy is famous and has some clout (possibly unmerited, I don't know. I may be biased because I am suspicious of people who have an advanced degree -like Dawkins - but get famous mainly for their pronouncements, or their outrageousness (that's Dawkins again), or for being generally smooth and good looking (Not Dawkins))

But yeah. Why should I consider his opinion on how I should speak any more heavily than that of any other non-specialist in elocution or whatever.

And I jokingly noted on Twitter: "I used to feel bad about my overuse of "awesome" but honestly? if it yanks NdGT's chain a little, I'm gonna keep doing it."

Because yeah. Again, it has an air of crankiness about it and it makes me go "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO SAY OR NOT, ASTROPHYSICIST MAN"

And also, it occurred to me: isn't the casual use of "awesome" kind of a "stereotypical" teen-girl thing? And doesn't there seem to be a strain in our culture that says "If teen girls like it, it is beneath my contempt" and it's the same old desire to silence people different from the speaker (or change them, or judge them).

And part of my irritation is that, in fact, in the past couple years, I have let a little bit more of my inner Teen Girl out - the funny thing is, the first go-round, I remember being a preternaturally serious Teen Girl (I could be wrong on that, though) and it's kind of fun, as an adult, to go back and play around a little with things like glitter nail polish, and to have different shades of lipstick ("This one is a pinkish red but that one is totally different because it's a reddish pink") for my different moods (My mom only ever kept one shade on hand, that I remember, and it does feel slightly frivolous to have six or eight lipsticks, but whatever, it makes me happy) and being able to cheerfully declare stuff "awesome!" is part of that, and just generally trying to be cheerful and upbeat and to enjoy things largely non-ironically.

(Ironic enjoyment of stuff is....frustrating to me. I want to be earnest and genuine in stuff, so I will say, for example, "Oh, wow, I love "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and there are at least a few people who will say they like it too, but then maybe it turns out they like it mainly to snark at it or about it and that makes me sad because I GENUINELY do love it and it makes me happy in a way not a lot of entertainment things do....)

And it DOES feel a little bit like policing of what other people do or enjoy.

So as I said, if it yanks the chain of someone whom I don't know and yet who seemingly wants to control how I speak or how I enjoy stuff, great. Because

GLITTER NAILPOLISH IS AWESOME
and
ICE CREAM IS AWESOME
and
CLINIQUE'S "POP" LIPSTICKS ARE AWESOME
and
T-SHIRTS WITH KITTENS OR FUNNY CARTOONS ON THEM ARE AWESOME
and
FLANNEL PAJAMA PANTS ON A COLD NIGHT ARE AWESOME
and
BEING ABLE TO CURL UP IN MY BIG BED EVEN THOUGH IT'S MADE A LOT SMALLER BY ALL THE STUFFED ANIMALS, HAVING THE BED AND THE STUFFED ANIMALS IS AWESOME