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Two overused and denatured substitutes that I would like to see consigned to the proverbial dust-bin (we in the USA would say "trashcan")of history are "awesome" (a once valuable descriptor of such things as a waterfall, a volcanic eruption, the power of a storm, but now generally used by pre-teenagers to describe a video or a pair of shoes) and "cool" (in its latter day and debsaed form, generally pronounce almost like "cawl" and frequently used to describe accumulated or desired consumer goods, rather than the jazz musician mystique it once had).

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I regret that I am unable to cite the source of the following:
Mother: "Dear, there are two words I'd like you to stop using. One is "awesome" and the other is "cool."
Daughter: "OK, Mom. What are the words?"

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from a list of Jewish Jokes:
(#446) Advice
Morris says to his teenage daughter “There are two words I’d like you to drop from your vocabulary.
One is ‘awesome’ and the other is ‘gross’.”
“Okay,” she replies, “what are they?”

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As a tutor, I read and revise essays by post-secondary students. I attempt to wean my clients away from use of the word "very" by pointing out that use of "very" may be seen as a sign of a limited vocabulary and as indicating a lazy approach to essay writing. I suggest they substitute more sophisticated intensifiers such as "extremely" or "immensely."

Last edited by Davey; 04/07/08 02:53 PM.
tsuwm #175662 04/07/08 02:58 PM
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what are they?

I first heard this roughly half a century ago on an episode of I Love Lucy where the words were swell and lousy. I'm sure it's recorded somewhere in the Mahabharata, if not the Rig Veda.


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 Originally Posted By: Davey
I suggest they substitute more sophisticated intensifiers such as "extremely" or "immensely."

That's extremely awesome advice, except... Enormously many people use gargantuanly many "very"s because they tend to over-emphasize humongously much or tremendously exaggerate which this advice will increase a gigantically titanic deal. ;-)

Last edited by Myridon; 04/07/08 03:59 PM.
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the road to hell is paved with very many prodigiously bad adverbs, muttered Tom gracelessly.

-joe (thanks for the marmosets) friday

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bad adverbs

There are no bad adverbs, just badly managed ones.

―beppo (lexeme monger) von und zu schönleinen


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dude.


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 Originally Posted By: etaoin
dude.


speaking of bad commercials..

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