It sounds phony, too. Something bad can make a good impression and vice versa. Thus, there came to be a philosophical basis for my displeasure with that word. I decided I didn't ever want to be impressed, and so, as a matter of principle, I would never set about to impress. W ords are living, evolving creatures.
Words can be noble or iniquitous, generous or cheap, flamboyant or timid.
They describe, they express, they limit, they mislead. In the wild, words, like other living things, must compete. All are freely available to be used, yet nobody uses them all. Some words survive only in the theasaurus, the verbal equivalent of a zoo. Once ensconced in a vocabulary, each word must still compete daily for slots in speech production.