4 ms·
Hi, pedant here. That's the original meaning of the word: to inspire awe, and there is always a bit of terror in awe. A hurricane is awesome, as is a $deity tha
by nickserv 7y ago
Hi, pedant here. That's the original meaning of the word: to inspire awe, and there is always a bit of terror in awe. A hurricane is awesome, as is a $deity that sends one.
But alas, language has changed and these kids won't get off my lawn.
- skrebbel 7y agoThis is the kind of pedantry I come to HN for, thanks.
- stjohnswarts 7y agoThis is the kind of pedantry that makes me thankful for the [-] box
- rdiddly 7y agoSpeaking of words that changed: sublime used to mean this. Something powerful and dangerous that inspired terror and a sort of admiration was said to be sublime. Here's Edmund Burke writing in 1757: ‘Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.’