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Supplement Those Same-Old Superlatives With Awesome New Ones!

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Arthur Plotnik
Arthur Plotnik

Author, editor, and wordsmith Arthur Plotnik grew sick of hearing and reading the same expressions of enthusiasm. So he decided to research and compile a volume of alternatives: "Better Than Great: A Plentitudinous Compendium of Wallopingly Fresh Superlatives."

"Superlatives confer extreme value on something, we need them to celebrate the worthiest things in our lives," Plotnik said. "When we use the same superlatives — awesome, amazing, unbelievable and incredible — we're not celebrating anything."

Substituting words like "stellar" or "exalted" says much more about how we feel about something, Plotnik says.

Listener, Edison, says "I don't like it when people say something is dumb. Dumb seams like such an inarticulate word." While Julia Brown says the word "lovely" is "overused."

Read more listener comments here or leave your own below!

Guest:

  • Arthur Plotnik, author of "Better Than Great"

This segment aired on August 11, 2011.

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