As has been mentioned in earlier posts, one word that can be heard emanating from the mouths of younger speakers of American English is ‘awesome’, uttered in complete disharmony from the speech context. Y-H-B was reminded of this peculiarity in my interactions recently with a young man at an Apple store in Manhattan, whose response to any utterance of mine was “awesome.”
Besides being an instance of anosognosia, this widespread speech tic (which is what it is) is underlain by a total ignorance and awareness of the word’s original meaning (‘inspiring awe’). Why just this word has come to assume its current status among the young is unclear.

MICHAEL SHAPIRO