When words lose their meaning: Everything is awesome

Have you noticed something? Everything these days is awesome.
Your coffee order at Starbucks is, “Awesome!” or so says the barista. You’ve just
told the drycleaner that you’re dropping off two suit jackets. That, too, is “Awesome.”
The sad truth is that when everything is awesome, nothing is awesome.

When did those of us who publish books get so crabby? But we
are crabby about this kind of devaluation of formerly useful words.

Many years ago, we were the ones who cringed every time
someone said that something was “groovy.” We just gritted our teeth and hoped
that the day would come when it would die out. It did.

But now we have a bigger problem because the word we are
having a problem with is a real word that has a specific definition that dates
to the sixteenth century. “Groovy” on
the other hand, has a somewhat looser…