Awesome?

I’ve occasionally felt moved to make a little blog post about the excessive, and therefore inappropriate, use of the word ‘awesome.’ Without reaching for my edition of the OED, I should think a reasonable definition would be something like ‘having the quality to inspire awe.’ I admit to feeling slightly irritated when so many people throw it thoughtlessly around to describe things that are no more than innocuous or commonplace. I always bit my tongue because it seemed that such a post would be overly picky or even churlish. Today I read the following comment on somebody’s blog:

Gosh! You met a celebrity? How awesome is that?

This adds layers of further irritation. For a start, the ‘celebrity’ in question wasn’t really a celebrity at all, just some seedy sexual predator who’d written a book on how to be a successful womaniser. I suppose that’s beside the point, though, because the real question it raises is this:

Is the commenter guilty of using the offending word inappropriately, or does he really find the meeting of a celebrity awe-inspiring?

Gulp?