Wednesday, March 3, 2010

quicko: lingo

I just couldn't pass up this gem in today's mX: in an article about what to name a very large number, one of the prefixes/names suggested was "hella." mX felt the need to clarify: "Hella is North Californian slang for 'very' or 'a lot of.'"

How good is that? And since when did North California get its own slang, let alone its own capitalization?

2 comments:

redhedqd said...

I thought that the phrase actually originated in the Anehiem area, as in "You've got me feelin' hella good so let's just keep on dancing" ~Gwen Stefani of No Doubt 2002
~Gina

stein! said...

as a northern californian (i shudder when i realize that IS, indeed, what i am) 'hella' gets thrown around and used for EVERYTHING. one might even say it's hella thrown around.

i loathe the "h" word and yet, find myself using it without thinking.

and there is much debate whether it started in my "hometown", oakland, or if it made its' way up here from so. cal.