Dragaera

evolution in languege: OT

Mark A. Mandel thnidu at yahoo.com
Fri Feb 25 20:11:54 PST 2005

--- MedCat7 at aol.com wrote:

> Like "wicked." It really means something evil (or to that effect), but the
> way I, and many New Englanders, use it is to mean something like, "very" or
> "extremely," only meant more than exteme (if that makes sense) (wicked cold,
> wicked awesome). 

Many years ago I was having lunch with friends in the company cafeteria. One
woman started ranting against "wicked good", about how it was intrinsically
contradictory and shouldn't be used and was corrupting the language. I thought
a bit while she was talking, and then I said, "Oh, I don't know. I kind of like
it. I think it's pretty good. In fact, I think it's awful nice." ... She
literally stopped, freeze-frame, with a forkful of food in midair en route to
her mouth.

-- Dr. Whom, Consulting Linguist, Grammarian,
   Orthoepist, and Philological Busybody
   a.k.a. Mark A. Mandel


		
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