We need new superlatives. We're wearing the old ones out.

Seriously, if we look at evaluative adjectives (fine, okay, good, great, awesome, perfect), that's...approx. 6 levels of comparison, at base? Maybe twice that if you include modifiers like "pretty" or "really"?

That's far from enough levels to communicate the nuance of comparison explicitly, let alone implicitly. And that's after we've brought several words that used to be superlative down in magnitude.

"That was great, and by great I mean the classical definition like as in Alexander the Great, not the colloquial great."

"That was awesome, but not as in 'inspiring awe' I just mean I thought it was cool."

I wonder if there's something to the idea of "superlative creep" where superlatives slowly become assimilated into colloquial use, leaving a lexical hole where their traditional definitions were.

I'd ask a linguist if I knew one.

(This thread brought to you by this week's episode of "trying to go to sleep outside my natural circadian rhythm so that I can wake up for my 8am")