Have you noticed how many things lately are “amazing!!”? Any hamburger, Elvis impersonation, or forward pass that draws strong approval is sure to be deemed “amazing!!”. Or incredible!! Or unbelievable!! Or all three. Maybe tremendous!! Or great!! Use of more meaningful descriptive terms occurs about as often as Republican support for making it easier to vote.

Sometimes, of course, “incredible” (without exclamation points) is fully accurate. Saying that Bill Gates implants microchips in your arm when you get a Covid vaccination is incredible. A major-league grand-slam homerun in the first inning followed by another in the second is remarkable and impressive, but it is not incredible. Believe it. The Yankees did that last month.

My point is that “incredible!!” and the other adjectives above seldom offer even a smidgen of precise definition; they only intensify, and when used too often they fail even to do that. Most of Donald Trump’s “facts” were incredible; they defied belief. But to characterize his stump performances as “incredible!!!” indicates little other than the speaker’s strong response.

Here’s another objectionable intensifier: “absolutely.” Can’t anyone say just “yes” anymore?  Not often, it seems. A simple “yes” is weak; “absolutely” is strong. And apparently, stronger is generally preferable. Similar to this is the teen-speak use of “totally.” I’m happy to report, however, that incidence of “totally” seems to be dwindling. Likewise, “cool!” and “neat” as terms of approval. Maybe someday all three will fall into the ranks of archaisms such as “copacetic,” “pshaw,” and “twenty-three skidoo.” When that happens, we should declare a national holiday.

There are reasons other than making me less grumpy to be more precise with choice of words. Doing so makes communication less likely to result in misunderstandings. Diplomats are trained to choose their words carefully in order to lessen the possibility of international conflict. On another level, careful word choice is an aid to marital harmony. At my house, for example, an allegation that one of us is “always” doing something that is irritating is tantamount to domestic terrorism; “often” or “frequently,” being more accurate, are less likely to result in an unwelcome outcome.

On the other hand, imprecision is what enabled Donald Trump to create a slavish confederacy of the crazed. Characterizing the condition of the world, affairs of state, opponents as horrible, terrible, pathetic, or weak, and allies as terrific, amazing, unbelievable, tremendous, great great, or really really, special special was, I guess, something he could not help doing. Precision in expression and thought was no more possible for him than good manners or competing in an Olympics decathlon. Here are two of his gems. He found the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, to be a “terrific woman” who was doing “a terrific job.” And Queen Elizabeth was “amazing!!!” OK, so they impressed him, but managing Anglo-American relations demanded more than that, didn’t it? (At least, he didn’t grab them by their pussies.)

The biggest meaningless Trump intensification – alas, dismayingly effective – was “Make America Great Again.” His supporters felt a shiver of patriotic pride at its recitation; the rest of us, fear and loathing. It was clear that he did not care for the America of 2016, but beyond that, it meant whatever listeners wanted it to mean. Surely, nothing requires precise language more than making the case for why you should be president of the United States.

COMING SOON TO A THEATER NEAR YOU: another helpful little screed on “potentially” as used by TV reporters, “healing” used for other than a physical condition, “band width” to describe a human trait, and – your eighth-grade English teacher was right – exclamation points as a substitute for effective descriptors.