awesome, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

awesome adj.

[weak use of SE; the term gained a new currency, esp. among the pre-teens, with the popularity c.1990 of the cartoon/film heroes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in whose dialogue it featured heavily]

1. (also awes) impressive, enormous, frightening.

[1818		J. Hogg Brownie of Bodsbeck I 280: ‘It is his ghaist come to haunt the place.’ [...] ‘Ower true! it’s awesome to think o’’].
1920		H.C. Witwer Kid Scanlon 268: I wish I had a line of patter like that! Amazin’ and awesome accuracy!
1968		G. Cuomo Among Thieves 339: It’s too awesome even to contemplate.
1976		R. Sabbag Snowblind (1978) 174: Awesome. Blood and raw meat.
1985		G. Tate Flyboy in the Buttermilk (1992) 37: The tapes from that concert [...] are awesome. It’s like funk on the Ellingtonian or symphonic level.
1990		J. Wambaugh Golden Orange (1991) 172: The harbor jetty [...] was jammed with kids daring the reeeelyawesome waves that sometimes roar to twelve feet.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 63: Almost gettin mashed by the awesome eighteen wheeler pullin’ out of a concealed entrance.
2000		Observer Mag. 25 Jan. 28: It were awesome. The best rock’n’roll show I’ve seen since Motorhead seven years ago.
2004		N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 224: They were awesome fist-fighters.
2011		IOL News 9 Nov. 🌐 Cape Town’s scenery is awesome.
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 12: Brad Lewis and his awesome WTF sense of humor.

2. (orig. US teen) wonderful, excellent, the best.

1979		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 1: awesome – fantastic.
1988		‘Victoria Parker’ Incest Schoolgirls 🌐 ‘Oooooh,’ she whispered. ‘That would be totally awesome!’.
1998		D. Clowes Ghost World 39: Check out that waiter’s awesome ‘fifties’ hair-do!
2000		Guardian Guide 1–6 Jan. 18: Went to see Stretch’n’Vern [...] which was awesome.
2005		L. Theroux Call of the Weird (2006) 129: Mike is awesome. Very open-minded.
2011		Times Mag. 30 Apr. 96/3: ‘That is so awesome,’ said my son, cackling wildly.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 89: He thought the Young Lions was fucking awesome.
2018		G. Gilmore Base Nature [ebook] ‘I’ve got some awesome news’.
2024		D. Rucker Life’s Too Short 95: [H]ere we are, for the first time ever, two adults, sitting at my kitchen table, drinking, talking, laughing. It feels strange and—awesome.

In derivatives

awesomesauce (adj.)

(US) epitomizing excellence; also as excl. of approbation [underpinned by brand name of cleaning product Awesome Sauce].

2001		alt.tv.kids-in-hall 22 Sept. [Usenet group] 🌐 You guys are awesomesauce.
2005		Urban Dict. 8 June 🌐 awesome sauce a beautifully assonant phrase which can and should be used on any occasion where joy and elation are expressed.
2016		C. Eble UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2016 1: AWESOMESAUCE - excellent: X: ‘I’ll have this project done by tomorrow.’ Y: ‘Awesomesauce.’.