Saturday, March 8, 2014

Amazing Is Not Amazing Anymore

The Harcourt Brace and World Standard College Dictionary:  Amaze: verb 1.  To overwhelm, as by wonder or surprise; astonish greatly. 2. Obs. To bewilder.  Amazing: Adjective.  Causing amazement; astonishing, wonderful.

Roget's II The New Thesaurus:
Amaze (verb): surprise.  Amazing (adjective): fabulous.

How is it that all of the creatives are like lemmings when it comes to this adjective?  Are they not artists?  Are they not really that creative after all?  What's so wrong with wonderful?  Isn't fabulous still fabulous?

The only justification for the overuse of amazing is if in fact everyone is incorrectly reading the facial expressions of those who may have overindulged in Botox.  Although this is probably a contributing factor, Cicero is not persuaded that this is the reason celebrities have such a short list of adjectives.

Economists like to "call the bottom" of an economic trend.  Cicero is calling the bottom of amazing (thank you, Academy Awards).

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