January 20, 2011

Word-Makers, Get It Straight!

I noticed today, while I wasn't doing homework, because the Oracle Teacher said there would be no school tomorrow, that 'awful' and 'awesome' have the same words in them, but mean opposite things!

AWful and AWEsome. Awe means a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder. I wouldn't mind being awe-inspiring. Awesome means extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear. However Awful means very bad or unpleasant.

AWE has the same meaning in both words, but aweSOME means great and cool, so if you have logic, then awFUL would be super great and cool!

WHY THE ANTONYM?

If someone took Latin and tried to figure out the meanings of these words, do you know what would happen? Death. That's what would happen. Because if someone who prided themselves on being able to find the meaning of any word with their knowledge of ancient languages found out that a words' definition was the opposite of what he thought it would be, then we all know they would implode. That's why so few people speak Latin and Ancient Greek--it comes with risks. And imploders implanted in your brain.

I think I'll going to start saying, "Cookies? Awful!" and then others will say, "Awful? Why are cookies bad?" and I will look at them in a confused manner, wondering why they don't understand and I will explain, "Awful is more awe than awesome so it is better. Awesome doesn't contain enough awe to explain how I feel about these cookies." Then they will laugh good-naturely and say, as they always do, "You're so strange."

Your Blogger,
Nadia

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