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By JAMES J. KILPATRICK
Iniurml Press Syndicate
A letter came the other day from Paul Warsett of Minneapolis. He was wondering how “awfully” came to mean “very,” as in, “That’s awfully kind of you.” All 1 could say by way of response is that the usage has been around for an awful long time.
It’s an idiom, that's all, one of the thousands of fascinating expressions that lend color and texture to our speech. As a universal intensifier, “awful” dales from the late 18th century. Merriam-Webster cites a letter form poet John Keates: “It is an awful while sirice you heard from me.”
“Awfully” has many cousins. Reader Warsett cites the comment of a Minnesota publisher who was asked about the launching of a new magazine. “It went frightfully well,” he said. President Clinton says the country “badly needs” welfare reform. A prosecutor describes a vicious murder as a “pretty horrid case.” How can something be both pretty and horrid?
Every language has its idioms. They baffle the foreigner; they resist analysis; they defy translation. What,
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