Incredible issue !

[FredPuli43]

When did 'incredible' become the popular intensifier that it now is ? It seems that everyone (apart from me!) now uses it, whether they are academics in TV documentaries, politicians or footballers, it is the favoured word for 'extremely' ,'very' and the rest.

And, similarly, when did the word 'issue' become the favoured word for 'question' and the like? Formerly, it was only common in the courts,where we spoke of 'pleading to the issue' and 'a triable issue'.

[Quizmonster]

Given that incredible is an adjective, I'm not too clear on where it may replace extremely and very, both adverbs. Accordingly, I'm not sure whether I have even understood your question correctly, Fred.
From the OED...
"1482 Monk of Evesham 33 An inestymable and incredibulle swetenes of ioyfull conforte."
I don't really see that his "incredible sweetness" is so very different from "It was an incredible goal" despite the fact that it is over half a millennium old.

Re issue, I'd guess that the rest of us have simply taken up the legal concept in the sense of "the matter in QUESTION."

[joggerjayne]

Doesn't incredibly mean scarcely believable, or something along those lines?

Is it a tendency to over-dramatise things?

How was Rooney's goal on Saturday?

It wasn't just very good, it was ...

"Incredibly good", or "unbelievably good"

[FredPuli43]

LOL, QM All right:' incredibly'. Anyway, it is incredible how common the use of incredible and incredibly has recently become. I mean that literally.
It is not acceptable. :-)

[factor-fiction]

You clearly have issues, FredPuli43.
I worked at one place where the use of the word 'problem' was frowned upon- we had to say 'challenges' or 'issues'.

Now I hear people at work saying about a colleague/pupil "oh, he/she had some issues..." and everyone nods knowingly as if that justifies the behaviour, whereas I am wondering what the issues were.

As for 'incredible' maybe it has replaced 'awesome'- for several years every performance on a football pitch or on X factor was 'awesome'. And every participant on X factor had been on a 'journey' or a 'rollercoaster ride'

[factor-fiction]

Absolutely

[Vicasso]

factor30, I worked at a place where problems were to be described as 'opportunities'
It did not go down well when a colleague announced that he had an 'insurmountable opportunity'

[Quizmonster]

Factor, if you are referring to the use of absolutely to mean emphatically yes or quite so, this has been in use since the 1890s. Originally an Americanism, it has been freely used by British writers for a century. I think it's about time we just accepted it. It ain't gonna go away!

[Tallulah!]

Amazing, wow, only, at this moment in time. I could go on for ever!

[factor-fiction]

I have gotten used to it, Quizmonster

[Ellipsis]

Awesome - not!

[elzee53]

Incredible trends?

[kengrace]

So many different answers, all absolutely unique.

[daisybrewer6]

Scenario is a word I loathe, what's the matter with situation?

[Tinkerpuss]

I don't hear the word 'incredible' all that much. The word that really irritates me and seems to have replaced a simple 'yes' is 'absolutely'! Everyone from newsreaders, reporters, sports commentators and the ordinary person in the street seems to use this word indiscriminately.
It infuriates me so much I find myself shouting at the TV saying, "Just say YES!".

[jno]

I've been listening to an academic fronting a TV series on the crusades, and he does get through an awful lot of incrediblys.

Worse still, the things he's talking about are all quite credible.

[boxtops]

Let's discuss the misuse of "epicentre"....

[factor-fiction]

And 'literally'- a colleague told me that after a tough day she was "literally climbing the walls" and on the TV today a reporter said "the world is literally your oyster"

[boxtops]

LOL factor, sounds like your colleague has been playing Lemmings on the computer!

[marray]

... and how many feats, things, people are "Fantastic" ? supposedly they are all real, yet fantastic surely refers to "something of fantasy.. all in the mind, ... and there must be hundreds more !