Wicked

[pandadynamic]

Is the word "wicked" used instead of good in slang? confusing

 

[Skrej]

I'm only familiar with it as an intensifier, or synonym for 'really' or 'very', as in "It's wicked cold."

It's also regionally associated as New England slang, at least here in the U.S.

Being from central U.S.A, I had never heard it until I spent a few summers in Massachusetts.

 

[Barb_D]

"Wicked" has and does mean "very" in New England.
I haven't seen "wicked" used to mean "Oh cool!" or "That's great!" in a long time. I don't think that's current slang.

 

[probus]

That seems to be correct with respect to AmE. But I have the feeling that in recent years it has come to be an adjective meaning good or cool, and checking urbandictionary.com there are a couple of posts claiming that is the case in BrE. If we grant that urbandictionary has a little credibility in this case, perhaps the modern BrE usage has leaked into Canada, where I live, but not into the USA.

 

[emsr2d2]

Oh yes, younger people in the UK have been using "Wicked" to mean "fantastic" or "really good" for years.

 

[Skrej]

Well, I'm not surprised. 'Bad' has been used as a (slang) synonymy for good, interesting, fantastic, etc. for a long time here in the US (I'd unscientifically guess it started in the 80's), so I can easily believe that 'wicked' would follow.

Give it a bit more time, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that usage of wicked=good pop up in AmE as well, if it hasn't already.

Actually, kind of an interesting question to see if wicked=good will take root in AmE, since there's already a usage of wicked=very, especially since that usage is regional.

 

[probus]

In the early 80s, bad was certainly used to mean good in AmE, but it had a communal or cultish connotation. It wasn't mainstream usage back then.