【英语】awesome的同义词

1. thriven and thro

Thriven here appears to derive from the sense meaning ‘advanced in growth’, but thro is not found– instead it was used in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries to mean ‘stubborn’. Together, as ‘thriven and thro’, they were an epithet used in alliterative poetry to call someone excellent.

2. gradely

Although the earliest known sense of gradely probably referred to people and meant ‘ready’or‘prompt’, by 1400 the word could be used to refer to objects – to label them awesome. You might not be understood if you said this in London or Cornwall, but it’s still wide in use in the north of England.

3. eximious

Eximious comes from Latin eximius, meaning ‘select, choice, outstanding, exceptional’. And it was common in 17th-century literature as a way of describing someone distinguished.

4. jelly

Around 1560, according to current research – jelly may be related in some way to jolly, although the phonetic change has no parallel. The use is also a little different – describing someone excellent, but with a high opinion of themselves.

5.topgallant

Originally a nautical noun, relating to the head of the topmast, the adjective later developed from this literal sense to a figurative one, to designate anything lofty or grand.

6. prestantious

From the Latin praestāntia, meaning ‘excellence’, this adjective has the distinction of being both rare and obsolete – with only one instance recorded in the OED.

7. gallows

The earliest sense of the adjective gallows means ‘fit for the gallows’ – that is, deserving to be hanged. In the same way that wicked and bloody have come to mean their reverse, gallows became a slang adjective meaning ‘excellent ’, first found in 1789.

8. budgeree

This Australian colloquialism dates back to the 18th century, and derives from an Aboriginal language.

9. supernacular

Particularly used to describe drinks, supernacular is the adjective equivalent of the slang noun supernaculum, meaning ‘a drink to be consumed to the last drop’.

10. jam / jam-up

From the adverb jam or jam-up (meaning ‘closely, in close contact ’) developed the adjectival meaning ‘excellent, perfect, thorough’, in colloquial use. One could thus, conceivably, jam up jam-up jam, if you were stacking shelves of awesome strawberry preserve.

11. boss

The adjective boss, meaning ‘excellent, masterly’, developed earlier than one might imagine from attributive use of the noun in collocation with occupational titles, e.g. ‘boss shoemaker’, ‘boss carpenter’, etc.— the first truly adjectival use recorded in the OED is from 1881: ‘No country in the world could make such a boss-show as the United States.’

12. fizzing

Many verbs have come to have an adjectival slang sense of ‘excellent’ – such as ripping, topping, and rattling. Fizzing is another example.

13. bad

Bad can, of course, be the antonym of awesome, but its slang use to mean ‘good’ is well-known – popularized by the 1987 Michael Jackson song ‘Bad’.

14. deevy

Deevy is an alteration of divvy, which is (in turn) a slang abbreviation of divine. Early uses cited in OED include examples from the works of Elinor Glyn, Vita Sackville West, and E.F. Benson.

15. v.g.

V.g. – as an initialism for ‘very good’ – may well not be new to you, but you might be surprised to find that it’s been part of the English language since at least as far back as the 1860s.

16. bosker

This Australian and New Zealand slang adjective, of unknown origin, also appears in the form boscar and boshter. More familiar will be the similar bonzer (also meaning ‘extremely good’), which – it has been suggested – may be an alteration of bonanza.

17. jake

This originally American adjective is now used further afield. If you want some alternatives, Australian and New Zealand slang have jakeloo, jakealoo, and jakerloo.

18. bodacious

Although dating back to the 19th century with the sense ‘complete, thorough’, this adjective later appeared in American slang as a synonym for awesome. The word was greatly popularized by the teen film Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989).

So, there you have it: 18 words you can use instead of awesome – although, we must admit, some of them might be unfamiliar in 21st-century conversation. Still, there are plenty of options out there.