awfully is an adverb made out
of the adjective awful, which 700 years ago
started out meaning "worthy of fear," "causing
dread." Over about 500 years awful changed
its meaning to "very bad" gradually taking on a
weakened sense of "excessively," "great." The
reverential sense of awful has been appropriated by awesome
in modern times. Meanwhile, the word
awfully has been enlisted to strengthen
various negative adjectives: angry, bad, bitter,
calloused, fat, ugly, hard, quarrelsome sad,
skinny, silly, sorry, sour, stupid,
tired, tough, wrinkled, wrong.
Nowadays one finds awfully routinely
preceding positive adjectives: attractive, beautiful,
darling, funny, generous, good, huge, humorous, kind,
nice, pretty, proud, slender, sweet.
In
negative phrases, awfully is usually not
needed. Its presence can actually weaken the
adjective it is intended to strengthen (see very). And in positive
phrases awfully is -- well, unintentionally
contradictory.
Seems to me that "awfully nice" makes no more
sense than "horribly beautiful."
That latter example takes us into the
amusingly serious realm of self-reference (see elegancelessness),
to which one might offer...
astoundingly
ordinary
attractively ugly
enormously petite
incredibly
likely
open-mindedly opinionated
pridefully humble
openly secretive
stiffly receptive
generously
stingy
sparklingly drab
obviously farfetched
quizzically incurious
ubiquitously rare
plainly distinguished
carelessly painstaking
fabulously stodgy
unconscionably sensitive
predictably irregular
gently insensitive
strangely familiar
famously private
unbelievably
honest
wonderfully crass
attractively ugly
shamelessly
embarrassed
earnestly dismissive
ridiculously serious
cheaply decorated
– think dime-store Purple Heart worn by a
candidate
sparsely
crowded – think attendance at the Inauguration
on January 20, 2017
fantastically realistic
That last example calls to mind "virtual reality" and
some self-contradictory noun phrases, which one
might invent...
proverbial fact
legendary principle
memorable
whatchamacallit
unhinged rationality
forgettable reminders
educated dullard
untrained expert
salubrious vulgarian
mythical truth
melancholic smile
humble pride
literally
figurative
solemn laughter
funereal gaiety
forgotten mnemonics
frowning grin
compassionate conservative
Readers are invited to submit their
awfully creative discoveries here.
In
negative phrases, awfully is usually not
needed. Its presence can actually weaken the
adjective it is intended to strengthen (see very). And in positive
phrases awfully is -- well, unintentionally
contradictory.