Epic
You’ve all seen it: everything is epic nowadays, and the word could mean anything from great to astounding to awesome or fantastic or mind-boggling. Fact is, however, that all of these are crude exaggerations in 99% of their applications in modern spoken and written English.
Take a look at these three screengrabs. They have all been taken from Twitter within less than ten minutes. You decide what epic is then supposed to mean:
You’ve all seen it: everything is epic nowadays, and the word could mean anything from great to astounding to awesome or fantastic or mind-boggling. Fact is, however, that all of these are crude exaggerations in 99% of their applications in modern spoken and written English.
Take a look at these three screengrabs. They have all been taken from Twitter within less than ten minutes. You decide what epic is then supposed to mean:
She “kind of likes”? I shudder! That may well be my next blog topic.
We do not have the right to do this to English. The Bard is set to make an epic return if we continue down this path.
I’m a person
“I’m a person who appreciates good wine.” No! And here I was thinking you were a mongoose!
Why do people say things like “I’m a person who...”? We all (generally) know that you are a person; you don’t have to say that to avoid any confusion on this matter.
“I appreciate good wine” is not only much shorter, simpler and to the point, it is also much better English.
Needless to say
Well, don’t then. Period.
In order to be able to…
In South Africa our politicians and government officials on all three levels of government have fallen in love with the use of enable or to be able in the silliest sentence constructions. “We have budgeted for our people to be trained to be able to write better reports.”
Why not “We have trained our people to write better reports”?
Awesome
And this also applies to fantastic (and perhaps even to epic?). Originally awesome referred to inspiring awe; while the Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines awe as “a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder”. So why does the guy at the bank say “Awesome!” when I confirm that I had signed his boring form? Was he that impressed with me or with my signature?
Awesome has lost all of its splendour and has become just another meaningless positive descriptor; not unlike good or cool.
Wouldn’t it be epic if awesome could be wiped from the minds of all under forties?
I’m a person
“I’m a person who appreciates good wine.” No! And here I was thinking you were a mongoose!
Why do people say things like “I’m a person who...”? We all (generally) know that you are a person; you don’t have to say that to avoid any confusion on this matter.
“I appreciate good wine” is not only much shorter, simpler and to the point, it is also much better English.
Needless to say
Well, don’t then. Period.
In order to be able to…
In South Africa our politicians and government officials on all three levels of government have fallen in love with the use of enable or to be able in the silliest sentence constructions. “We have budgeted for our people to be trained to be able to write better reports.”
Why not “We have trained our people to write better reports”?
Awesome
And this also applies to fantastic (and perhaps even to epic?). Originally awesome referred to inspiring awe; while the Concise Oxford English Dictionary defines awe as “a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder”. So why does the guy at the bank say “Awesome!” when I confirm that I had signed his boring form? Was he that impressed with me or with my signature?
Awesome has lost all of its splendour and has become just another meaningless positive descriptor; not unlike good or cool.
Wouldn’t it be epic if awesome could be wiped from the minds of all under forties?
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