Monday, April 5, 2010

Neologism - Awemazing

I haven't heard this in use yet - but one of my Twitter contacts tweeted it. Unfortunately not in any context, just to say that she thought it was a great word. So why post it as a neologism? Well it has an urban dictionary definition so is in some kind of usage. Its a portmanteau and I am a Lewis Carroll fan, or was, for a while at least (never did get round to staging Hunting of the Snark - but that's another story)...
Of note however is who this twitterer is - she is Jane Mcgonigal of Urgent Evoke. TED talk giver. Gamer. Erudite writer on how gaming can and does change the world. Not a 14 year old in creative writing class, who has finally learned the lesson from their teacher that they can't use awesome all the time.
I also feel that if we hadn't - no if you hadn't, you dastardly Americans, denuded the word awesome of all its meaning by using it all the time, we wouldn't need awemazing at all.
And Awe is important to me. It was the name of my first theatre company (the one that actually existed, rather than the one that never did).
So will I adopt awemazing? I sincerely doubt it. But Mcgonigal has followers, among my peers and friends in the uk. And I know at least one of them will use it in our creative workshops this August where we brainstorm ideas for their company to pitch to various producers.. I just hope they do so ironically.

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