We say it’s good - you say it’s phenomenal what’s the difference?

For many businesses the use of the word ‘phenomenal’ seems to be a cool thing to say – the word is used more and more and we take it to mean ‘good’ or perhaps something better than ‘good’.

But previously when something was better than ‘good’ we’d say it was ‘really good’ so does that mean that ‘phenomenal’ is better than ‘really good’?

I guess you know where this is going next...!

When something was better than ‘really good’ we’d say it was ‘really really good so we guess that ‘phenomenal’ must be loads better than ‘really really good.

A quick check on the thesaurus for Phenomenal says

Main Entry: phenomenal

Part of Speech: adjective

Definition: astounding, exceptional

Synonyms: extraordinary, fantastic, marvellous, miraculous, outstanding, preternatural, prodigious, rare, remarkable, sensational, singular, substantial, uncommon, unique, unparalleled, unusual, unwonted, wondrous

In case you’re wondering why we are doing a blog on this, the reason is quite simple. The other week we attended an event and we were asked afterwards what we thought of it. We commented that we thought it was good – to which the person asking the question took a sharp intake of breath and said “Good? I think that perhaps that was a bit of an understatement phenomenal is more like it”.

However in reality, for us the event was good, it was well attended, the food was nice, and it was well organised - in short, it was “good” and saying it was “good” was meant to be a compliment yet somehow it wasn’t taken as one.

So that we’re not on another planet a quick check on the thesaurus for good says

Main Entry: good

Part of Speech: adjective

Definition: pleasant, fine

Synonyms: acceptable, ace, admirable, agreeable, bad, boss, bully, capital, choice, commendable, congenial, crack*, deluxe, excellent, exceptional, favourable, first-class, first-rate, gnarly, gratifying, great, honourable, marvellous, neat*, nice, pleasing, positive, precious, prime, rad, recherché, reputable, satisfactory, satisfying, select, shipshape, sound, splendid, sterling, stupendous, super, super-eminent, super-excellent, superb, superior, tip-top, up to snuff, valuable, welcome, wonderful, worthy

The question we need to ask ourselves is “Why do we really need to think that things are needless better than they really need to be?”

It’s not until your attention is drawn to something like this that you begin to wonder about things, what you say! And what you hear...!

We guess it will not be long now before, using the word “phenomenal” won’t be good enough - it will have to be that it is “really phenomenal” or better still “really really phenomenal” When that happens it will be “awesome!” or better still “really awesome!”....oh can’t we just go back to the “good” times?