Fantastic and other superlatives?

'Fantastic Mr Fox'

Have you ever seen a fashion show on QVC? Shapeless polyester dish rags are described as "stunning" Surely only by their awfulness!

Having a chuckle at this post! Happy that I'm not the only grumpy Granny that has such a dislike to some adjective. My dislike of "amazing" is so strong that I might get very rude one of these days!

JackyB as the OP I think I can disagree! 'Fantastic!' was being used as a superlative completely inappropriately. Are you/were you a teacher? We could discuss this for pages but let's not

I left a dentist because she kept using the words 'super' and 'fantastic' to every flipping thing I said.
The receptionist asked me why I was leaving and I said because I can't stand the dentist saying super and fantastic to everything I say!
Grumpy? No not me!

I know this belongs in Pedants' corner, but "Fantastic" is not a superlative. It's an adjective.

The comparative is "more fantastic"
The superlative would be "most fantastic".

I shall now get my coat. And my pedant's hat. And exit.

Jalima thanks for the bit about France it reminded me of something we learnt there which I no longer use but will start again. DS had a penfriend in Cannes and we went to see him and his lovely mother. She used to say about anyone she had difficulty with that they were 'limited in the brain'. I know it was just her use of English but is so apt at times when dealing with a person who doesn't seem to know their own job.

Did I hear recently that 'literally' is now in the dictionary as meaning something like 'really' or was that just a dream? I always want to reply no, it is not at all literate!

I find that I have a favourite word which somehow creeps in everywhere. At the moment it's fab! When speaking on the phone if I'm given information then my reply is fab! When I speak to people face to face my agreement is fab!

At some stage I will realise that fab has given way to some other random word.

Hope you all have a fab day

I find the rampant over-use of the word "devasted!" should be made a public hanging offence.

maddy don't jump to conclusions, I am grieving for the loss of my son who died unexpectedly. I have plenty to 'worry about' but it doesn't include making assumptions about other people.

I’m not keen on “hun” and even less keen on hearing people call each other “babe” or “babes”.

Nonnie if this is all you have to worry about, you are a very lucky person.

What a mixture we are! I don't mind hun (picked up from DD), much dislike, bless, basically, literally. But OP was on superlatives. 'Thanks' would do the trick in the circs talked about - giving details over the phone. I've been known to use the despised 'super', as in 'super thanks', 'super sorry' when I really mean it and to people I know. This is what over use of superlatives does to us!

I used to count the “fantastic work” at my grandchildren’s school “well done” assemblies. A good day was more than thirty, an especially satisfying one was over fifty when I took a friend and we played “buzz word bingo” I got 52 fantastics and he got thirty “supers”.

I was very happy for over twenty years to be “satisfactory” on my annual work performance reports, only once having gained a “superior”, the year I was promoted.

We destroy folks self esteem if we endlessly over praise normal activity.

And literally. " I literally couldn't get my shoe on" grrr why ?

It annoys me when people (mostly in shops) say "Are you alright?" I feel like saying, "Why, are you a doctor?"

Hun - bah! Where does that come from??

There's a girl in our pharmacy like that. She gets all the medication requests wrong because of it. Then swears blind we never requested said item.

Hate the word Basically,my son and grandaughter use it all the time,drives me up the wall.
And Hun is another, not that they use it yet lol.

I'm with you Nonnie. Really irritating when people are over enthusing. Comes across as not really genuine. And can be clear sometimrs they are not really listening.

Rang my insurance company to report an accident. Response was ‘brilliant’. They probably won’t say that to anyone again after my rant.

I don't mind 'hun' at all, it's what DIL's DM calls me - I'd rather that than something rude

We had 'a problem' in France once years ago and were helped by a group of lovely French people. When we tried to thank them, offered them wine as a thank you they just kept saying 'pas de problème', 'pas de problème'!

So that's what we say now.

No worries mate.

Yes my DIL is from Australia. It's "no worries" over there .

I also find "no problem " a bit annoying. My friend and I recently met for lunch and the waitress said it constantly. We only ordered egg and chips with coffee so really didn't expect it to be a problem at all! Lol