11/16/12
A dictionary description of the word Wow. “1510s, Scottish interjection, a natural expression of amazement. The verb meaning “overwhelm with delight or amazement” is first recorded 1924, Amer.Eng. slang. Used as a noun meaning “unqualified success” since 1920. “This old interjection had a new popularity in the early 1900s and again during the 1960s and later” [DAS].
I use the word Wow quite often lately, because I have been so amazed at things I have been seeing and hearing. The number of weird environmental,political, economic events and remarkable individual human feats that have occurred in the last few years is truly remarkable. What can anyone say about them other than Wow! The original Scottish version of the word has taken on a more general translation now referring not only to something good happening but also to something very bad happening. What can anyone say other than Wow at the devastation caused by hurricane Sandy, or wild fires destroying hundreds of homes and causing massive evacuations? Wow seems to sum up everything that is overwhelming into a simple three letter word.
Another often used phrase commonly abridged, is OMG, short for Oh, My God! I find this statement significant because it is used to account for the unimaginable, and credits the Creator. When someone is without words, or stunned by someone or some amazing event, either joyful or painful, we use this phrase more often than any other to describe our pleasure,pain or shock. I don’t know exactly why we feel the need to call out God’s name, but even in our most personal moments of pleasure or disaster we say
” Oh My God!” This phrase obviously connects our thoughts to the sublime or divine by expressing our joy, pleasure, pain or horror outwards into an infinite call for understanding or thanks. The letters OMG have now become commercialized into a generic universal phrase to sell something or to attract attention to something or someone. It might have originated as a prayer and for many who use the phrase it still is a way of invoking divine guidance, to understand our emotional reaction to something we do not understand.
As the world spins faster towards the new age of Aquarius and time and space as we know it will virtually disappear, new marvels will be discovered and learned, and the word Wow and the phrase Oh, My God! may become the only word and phrase humanity will be able to speak as we discover who we really are and who we are destined to be.
L.A. Steel
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