Sunday Scribblings #69 - Wicked
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My mind has been playing with this topic now for a few days and I’m sorry to say that not much bubbles up. The American Heritage Dictionary has all kinds of things to say about this word — the one below seemed to fit the bill for me.
wicked - Definitions from Dictionary.com
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source
wick·ed (wĭk’ĭd) Pronunciation Key
adj. wick·ed·er, wick·ed·est1. Evil by nature and in practice: “this wicked man Hitler, the repository and embodiment of many forms of soul-destroying hatred” (Winston S. Churchill).
2. Playfully malicious or mischievous: a wicked prank; a critic’s wicked wit.
3. Severe and distressing: a wicked cough; a wicked gash; wicked driving conditions.
4. Highly offensive; obnoxious: a wicked stench.
5. Slang: Strikingly good, effective, or skillful: a wicked curve ball; a wicked imitation
Maybe it’s a New England thing, but wicked is not a word that I use extensively, especially in the sense of bad/immoral/mean/rotten/sinful blah, blah, blah. (I have lots of other, much more (ahem) creative, although not totally original, words that I use when I need to express myself negatively. Perhaps there will be a Sunday Scribblings topic devoted to that particular subject in the future!!) Instead, I seem to use it as an adjective as listed in #5 above- to enhance the adverb, usually in the positive — as in wicked good. And also as in, it’s wicked easy to get off the track while blogging — as I was putting this post together, I managed to visit and leave comments on 7 or 8 other wicked great to read blogs!!
July 21, 2007 at 1:32 pm
I liked reading all the different defintions of the word- it’s amazing how the meaning can be different from one area to another and from one culture to another!
July 21, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Do you have to be from the New England area to throw around expressions like “wicked awesome”, because I can stop using it at any time.
Wicked awesome post!
July 21, 2007 at 1:53 pm
RCJ — I enjoyed reading them too — it’s no wonder they say that the English language is the most difficult to master!!
Herb — I would be devastated if you stopped saying wicked awesome!! Besides, I’m originally from Northern New York and I said it when I lived there too!!
July 21, 2007 at 11:49 pm
Wicked does not mean evil any longer. I feel wicked good after reading this post!
July 22, 2007 at 12:22 am
What a wicked interesting post. I guess the dictionary must have been pretty wicked too.
July 22, 2007 at 2:27 am
Marcy -
Nice take on this prompt… really dug the definitions…
July 22, 2007 at 8:17 am
Good to read all the definitions, interesting how words can mean so many seemingly contradictory things.
July 22, 2007 at 10:10 am
A wicked reminder of how easy it is to forget the traditional meaning! Thank YOU!