“Awesome” is one of those words. And why shouldn’t it be? Unlike the weirdly popular “bad,” which actually meant “good,” “awesome” was accurate. It honored its definition. And it rolled off the tongue quite nicely, especially when preceded by the other most popular word of the decade — totally (as in: totally awesome!).

Best of all, it was a versatile word that you could use to stress the greatness of just about anything: awesome shoes, awesome song, awesome time, awesome decade (that would be the 80s, people).

80s Slang Overload

In the 80s, slang was rampant. Long strings of adjectives made the decade unusually rich with unnecessary verbiage: Oh my god, I like totally have to get that way awesome new song by Madonna, like right now, dude. Fer sure.

Naturally, the big proponents of the crazy slang were the kids. Without teenagers, 80s slang would been practically nonexistent.

But why? Why did kids suddenly take over the language and remake it to their own, hormone- and angst-ridden purposes? My theory is that this was a side effect of another 80s trend, which was in film making. In the 80s, producers started to see the teen crowd as a lucrative audience. To boost business, they made more movies for this particular audience, and peppered the dialog appropriately. You know, so the kids would totally understand the awesome characters and, like, relate to them.

Awesome!

I’m not going to get all crazy and whip out the Oxford English dictionary, but it’s worth taking a look at what “awesome” means. Here’s what dictionary.com says:

Totally!

Let’s face it, nothing was enough in the 80s. All those 80s fads and fashion, 80s music and movies, as big and bodacious as they were, still left us wanting more.

Everything we did and even what what we wanted was out of control in a way that was so complete, so total, that we were pushing past one hundred percent.

In 80s slang, “totally” became so frequent, so standard, that it actually lost some of its meaning. It was just some word you plugged in front of every other word. It was another word for “yes,” a way to emphasize anything under the sun, and a way to plant yourself firmly in the 80s.

Totally 80s!

You couldn’t get through five minutes of the day without hearing this 80s slang staple somewhere – at school, at work, on 80s TV, and even on the radio.

• Are you having fun? Totally!
• I’m totally obsessed with Prince!
• That is a totally rad shirt you’re wearing!

If you weren’t using the word “totally,” you were either deaf or dumb, or living on some other planet. In fact, it was so overused in 80s jargon that we actually shortened it and morphed it into some strange new 80s slang adjective.

Total 80s

That’s right, when “totally,” wouldn’t work, we just pulled off its last two letters and said “total” instead.

• It was not just a blast, it was a total blast.
• You are a total babe.
• I’m totally having a total meltdown.

What was it about this word that made us all want to embed it into our throats and have it permanently rolling off our collective tongues?

One thing’s for sure:

It’s a totally 80s fad. Total 80s slang.