Comments on: Wicked, Evolved

By: “Why are you writing sideways?” « A Place in Space

“Why are you writing sideways?” « A Place in Space — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:34:46 +0000

[...] gets us thinking about the worthiness of going through the labor of actually hashing out the range of meanings for any given term. Bradytomoss makes an intriguing distinction between uses of [...]

By: thumpasorus

thumpasorus — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 17:41:59 +0000

After revisiting this post and the definition of the word “wicked,” it does seem like using the word “wicked” to give emphasis is perfectly proper. I didn’t see that the dictionary classified it as slang. Is “wicked” official slang? It certainly is used in that way. For example, were I to use it at a job interview, I think I would be seen as uncultured, unprofessional, or uneducated (like the word “ain’t”). It definitely doesn’t express mastery of the language. It is a good word though, I think.

When I think of the stereotypical “wicked” user, someone with a thick Boston accent comes to mind. “Dude, Jetah is wicked retaaahded, toss me another Budweisah!” I thought maybe this connotation explains “wicked’s” slang status. However, not only people with heavy Boston accents say “wicked.” In my hometown, most people speak with the standard American accent, but still say wicked. Also, to my surprise, while at Roanoke College in Virginia I found some people said wicked. They weren’t from New England either. However, they used it incorrectly (at least by my standards). They would say “that’s wicked!” instead of “thats wicked cool!” These people were few and far between at Roanoke.

In that usage, “wicked” is an adjective. However I think that for most people in New England “wicked” functions as an adverb. I assume that most of my classmates from New England use the word, but I haven’t heard it from their mouths much. Maybe I just don’t notice it because it is so common.

I used to think that catch phrases and pop-words such as “sick” and “ill” were really only formed to express positive things. I thought this was because it is cooler to express that something is positive, and associate yourself with that. However, I’m not so sure that is the case now. I can think of plenty of examples of slang words used to negatively describe things. These words seems to be less popular though.

By: Stephanie Jo Kent

Stephanie Jo Kent — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:22:47 +0000

The tie-in at the end with “task” is quite insightful: you’ve recognized a context in which it makes sense that the labor of understanding a particular word from two different (shall we say) cultural vantage points could be a service to the group-as-a-whole (which includes persons from at least two different viewpoints, possibly two different worldviews).

Hmm. Are “worldviews” substantially distinct from “viewpoints”?

Your application of the concept of “frames” is also right on target.

The explanation you provide of the difference between the traditional definitions found by Anna (in “How the Word wicked Creates Reality“) and her own contemporary experience of its meaning left me with some questions.

For instance, I found the 4th regular variation provided by the Merriam Webster online dictionary, “going beyond reasonable or predictable limits: of exceptional quality or degree” to be perfectly consistent with the contemporary usage of “wonderful.” Why is this usage categorized as “slang” instead of as an equally valid ancient meaning as the dictionary states?

I’m also curious about the use of “wicked” in our class. Does anyone say it? If so, about what? Do they use it as an adjective, a good noun (“wonderful”), or a bad noun (“evil”)? And why might this matter?