wicked

English Online Dictionary. What means wicked‎? What does wicked mean?

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English wicked, wikked, an alteration of Middle English wicke, wikke (“morally perverse, evil, wicked”). Of uncertain origin. Possibly from an adjectival use of Old English wiċċa (“wizard, sorcerer”), from Proto-West Germanic *wikkō (“necromancer, sorcerer”), though the phonology makes this theory difficult to explain. Alternatively, perhaps related to English wicker, Old Norse víkja (“to bend to, yield, turn, move”), Swedish vika (“to bend, fold, give way to”), English weak.

The "excellent, awesome" sense is an ameliorative semantic shift from the original sense of "evil, mischievous". Compare similar semantic development in terrific and sick.

Pronunciation

• enPR: wĭkʹĭd, IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkɪd/
• Rhymes: -ɪkɪd

Adjective

wicked (comparative wickeder or more wicked, superlative wickedest or most wicked)

1. Evil or mischievous by nature.

   Synonyms: evil, immoral, malevolent, malicious, nefarious, twisted, villainous; see also Thesaurus:evil
2. Harsh; severe.

3. (slang) Excellent; awesome; masterful.

   Synonyms: awesome, bad, cool, dope, excellent, far out, groovy, hot, rad; see also Thesaurus:excellent

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

wicked (not comparable)

1. (slang, especially southern New England, British) To a superlative extent, very, extremely

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:very

   .

Usage notes

It would appear that wicked was originally used in and around Boston, MA, as the intesifying adverb in adjectival phrases qualifying especially (though by no means exclusively) positive adjectives, that is, adjectives describing the goodness and desirability of things or situations. Over time, phrases like "wicked good", "wicked awesome", and "wicked strong", and the highly idiomatic "wicked pissah" were often shortened by New Englanders (for whom brevity in speech may be viewed as a cultural imperative) to simply "wicked" by means of phrasal clipping. In this way, adverbial "wicked" gained an adjectival sense in its own right meaning "great"/"superlative". What is or was special to Boston and the Northeast is usage as an adverb and an adjective, not usage only as an adverb. However, the Merriam-Webster and American Heritage dictionaries no longer label the adverbial usage a regionalism.

Use of "wicked" as an adjective (in the sense of "extreme, awesome") rather than an intensifying adverb ("extremely, very") is sometimes considered an error when it is used to suggest a Boston or Northeast dialect. In fact, this is not necessarily true in the case of Bostonians born in the 1960s and 70s (and perhaps later) or in other New England dialects. "That's a wicked car" is perhaps used mostly by older Bostonians, but "that car's wicked" and especially "(that's) wicked!" (in the sense of "fantastic, awesome, great") are common in Boston.

Translations

Etymology 2

See wick.

Pronunciation

• enPR: wĭkt, IPA^(key): /wɪkt/
• Rhymes: -ɪkt

Verb

wicked

1. simple past and past participle of wick

Adjective

wicked (not comparable)

1. Having a wick.

Derived terms

• multiwicked

Etymology 3

See wick.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkɪd/
• Rhymes: -ɪkɪd

Adjective

wicked

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) Active; brisk.
2. (British, dialect, chiefly Yorkshire) Infested with maggots.
3. Alternative form of wick, as applying to inanimate objects only.

References

• “wicked”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Dewick

Middle English

Adjective

wicked

1. Alternative form of wikked

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English wikked.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkəd/

Adjective

wicked

1. wicked

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 104