I think I’m noticing a trend with English words:

• “cool” used to mean “a bit cold” but now it mostly means “good”
• “awesome” used to mean “inspiring awe” but now it mostly means “good”
• “fantastic” used to mean “fantastical” but now it mostly means “good”
• “incredible” used to mean “unbelievable” but now it mostly means “good”
• “amazing” used to mean “inspiring amazement” but now it mostly means “good”

@kasdeya I think this has to do with corporate sterilization of language. Like, people hear these words thrown around without much regard, often meaning the opposite of their definition because of how performance reviews are, and then the weight of the words lessens, I guess

@julia that’s a really interesting thought. that wouldn’t surprise me at all. it makes me think of those old circus advertisements that constantly overused words like “amazing”, “astounding”, “mystifying”, etc.

@kasdeya reverse newspeak; it turns out it is more effective to reduce the range of expressible meanings than it is to reduce the range of words

@kasdeya
Sounds like language enshittification to me.

@kasdeya this post has the juice.

@kasdeya Linguistic carcinization

@shlee @kasdeya "fully sick mate, subwoofer" i.e. not bad, good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRv7IE6T4gQ

@kasdeya all of these vary with intonation

@kasdeya

It’s all goood.

@kasdeya The overuse of superlatives means that there are no words left to describe things that are out of the ordinary.

@kasdeya "ultimate" used to mean "last" but

@kasdeya looking forward to seeing quarterly reports featuring sigma, mid, and skibidi

@kasdeya that's crazy (ie. good)

@ricci The other day I ate from a cup of "Ultimate yogurt" and felt sad that I could not have any yogurt again.

@kasdeya

@ricci @kasdeya "epic" as an adjective used to mean "of or relating to an extensive narrative poem celebrating the feats of a deity, demigod, or hero" but

@kasdeya idk if they're all the same flavor of good good, there's levels to it. but yeah

@kasdeya
yeah no, no, yeah, it's low key high key rad

@kasdeya semantic bleaching!

@kasdeya Good is the crab of the English language 🫡

Except for “shit”. It is still being used to express annoyance, anger, poor quality or surprise. Or, in some cases, a very inconpetent political leader.

@kasdeya what a freaking toot.

@kasdeya Don't forget "great" (really large), "terrific" (causing terror), "amazing" (causing amazement), "wonderful"/"fabulous"/"marvelous" (causing wonder), etc. It's not a new phenomenon.

@kasdeya

Rad

@kasdeya sick still means *pretty* good

@kasdeya But what does it mean if I say “good” today? 🤔

@kasdeya

When a language tries to reimport words that have taken on other meanings within its own dialect information is lost.

"cool" doesn't mean "good" ... it mean unruffled, unflustered, calm and self-assured. These are good things to be, but it's not just "good"

"awesome" doesn't mean good, it means unexpected, different, unique, but in a way that deserves admiration.

I was recently complaining about how this kind of flattening has touched "throwing shade"

https://sauropods.win/@futurebird/115922260871960146

@kasdeya Reminds me of this thing: