Wicked

I have chosen to write about the word “wicked”. I feel that especially living in Massachusettes the word has evolved and taken on a new use for itself. I never really put much thought into the word itself. I have always used it freely when trying to explain myself. For example if im eating a meal and I really enjoy it, I would say that this food is “wicked good”. A contrary example would be if im am not feeling well I could say that im “wicked sick”. Both uses are demonstrations of how a person from the Boston area uses the word.It wasnt until my freshman year at college did I really comprehend that the way I use the word is not correct among other places. A friend of mine, who was an exchange student from England, would always say that Im using it incorrectly. He would use “wicked” to describe a behavior. For example, if someonewere acting extremely mean in a situation, he would say that person was acting wicked.  A thing that confused me was that he would also use the same word to describe excitement. For example, we were watching the X-games and he saw a skateboarder do a spectacular move in the air. He described seeing that as “wicked” also. His uses were much different from the way I used the word. Funny enough we both confused eachother when using it. I suppose that it is all a matter of how/where a person was raised and the familiarity of the way in which you use the word that will define it for you. 

The word wicked is derived from the word wick, which is an adjective of the word wicca meaning wizard or a male sorcerer. It was used to describe mischief and evil. This is all from Old English and is commonly thought of as the proper way in which the word should be used. It wasn’t until the 1980’s where we saw the word evolve and take on new meaning, such as in the way we in Mass. use it today.