Hella Hoffmann
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Hella'' is an
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...
slang term originating in and often associated with San Francisco's East Bay area in
Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...
, possibly specifically emerging in the 1970s African-American vernacular of
Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good". It was eventually added to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...
'' in 2002, citing a 1987 first use in the ''
Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...
''. It is possibly a contraction of the phrase "hell of a" or "hell of a lot f, in turn reduced to "hell of", though some scholars doubt this etymology since its grammatical usage does not align with those phrases; or of "hellacious". It often appears in place of the words "really", "a lot", "totally", "very", and in some cases, "yes". Whereas ''hell of a'' is generally used with a
noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
, according to linguist
Pamela Munro Pamela Munro (born May 23, 1947) is an American linguist who specializes in Native American languages. She is a distinguished research professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she has held a position ...
, ''hella'' is primarily used to modify an
adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...
such as "good". According to lexicographer Allan A. Metcalf, the word is a marker of northern California dialect. According to Colleen Cotter, "
Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...
ns know the term ... but rarely use it." Sometimes the term ''grippa'' is used to mock "NorCal" dialect, with the actual meaning being the opposite of hella.


History


Early use

''Hella'' has likely existed in northern
California English California English (or Californian English) is the collection of English dialects native to California, largely classified under Western American English. Most Californians speak with a General American accent; alternatively viewed, possibly due ...
since at least the mid-1970s. Geoff Nunberg, a UC Berkeley linguist, has theorized on the origins of the slang term "hella". "Hella emerged somewhere in Northern California around the late 1970s, and although it spread to other places, it’s still associated with this region," says Nunberg. Historically, many slang words have spread from black English to white English and not in the other direction, which is why Nunberg says he suspects it started in Oakland, an area that, at one point, was 47% African American. By 1993,
Mary Bucholtz Mary Bucholtz (born 29 October 1966) is a professor of linguistics at UC Santa Barbara. Bucholtz's work focuses largely on language use in the United States, and specifically on issues of language and youth; language, gender, and sexuality; Africa ...
, a linguist at the
University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...
, collated materials from an urban high school (Mt. Eden High School) in the
Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...
and found that ''hella'' was "used among Bay Area youth of all racial, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds and both genders." ''Hella'' remains part of the dialect of northern California, where it has grown in popularity.


Spread

By 1997, the word had spread to
hip hop culture Hip-hop culture is an art movement that emerged in New York City, in the borough of The Bronx; Primarily within the black community. Hip Hop as an art form and culture has been heavily influenced by both male and female artists. It is charac ...
, though it remained a primarily West Coast term. With the release of the 2001
No Doubt No Doubt is an American rock band formed in Anaheim, California in 1986. For most of its career, the band has consisted of vocalist and founding member Gwen Stefani, guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal and drummer Adrian Young. Keyboar ...
song "
Hella Good "Hella Good" is a song by American rock band No Doubt from their fifth studio album, '' Rock Steady'' (2001). Written by Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal and the Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo), and produced by Nellee Hooper and the band, " ...
," one
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
n transplant in California "fear dthe worst: nationwide acceptance of this wretched term." Since the early 1990s ''hella'' has been used regularly in the
Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...
as a common slang term, particularly in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
and
Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...
. Popular area rappers
Blue Scholars Blue Scholars is an American hip hop duo based in Seattle, Washington, created in 2002 while the members, DJ Sabzi (Saba Mohajerjasbi) and MC Geologic (George Quibuyen), were students at the University of Washington. The name "Blue Scholar ...
and
Macklemore Benjamin Hammond Haggerty (born June 19, 1983), better known by his stage name Macklemore ( ; formerly Professor Macklemore), is an American rapper. A native of Seattle, Washington, he started his career in 2000 as an independent artist rele ...
regularly use the term in their lyrics; Macklemore uses the word several times in his worldwide hit song "
Thrift Shop "Thrift Shop" is a song written and performed by American hip hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring vocals from American singer Wanz, released in 2012, as the fourth single from the former's debut studio album, '' The Heist'' (2012). The lyr ...
". In the ''
South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...
'' episode "
Spookyfish "Spookyfish" is the fifteenth episode of the South Park season 2, second season of the American animated television series ''South Park''. The 28th episode of the series overall, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on Oct ...
," which was the 1998
Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
special, the character Cartman repeatedly used the term ''hella'' to the annoyance of the other characters, which contributed to its currency spreading nationally. "You guys are hella stupid" is one of the phrases spoken by a talking Cartman doll released in 2006. The
Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...
–based band Hella chose its name for the regional association;
Zach Hill Zachary Charles Hill (born December 28, 1979) is an American multi-instrumentalist and visual artist. He is best known as the drummer and co-producer of the groups Death Grips, and the I.L.Y's, and as the drummer of math rock band Hella. Ear ...
says "It's everywhere up here.... We thought it was funny, and everyone says it all the time." ''Hella'' was included on the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
's list of 20 words that sum up the 2000–2009 decade, defined as "An intensive in Youthspeak, generally substituting for the word ''very''". Paralleling the use of the
minced oath A minced oath is a euphemistic expression formed by deliberately misspelling, mispronouncing, or replacing a part of a profane, blasphemous, or taboo word or phrase to reduce the original term's objectionable characteristics. An example is "gosh ...
''heck'', some people use ''hecka'' in place of ''hella''. Younger school children may be required to use this form. Church culture in Northern California also encouraged usage of ''hecka'' over ''hella''. The
Prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...
song "
U Got The Look "U Got the Look" is a song by American musician Prince. It opens the second disc of Prince's double album '' Sign o' the Times'' (1987), and became the album's runner-up chart single. Musically, the song is a standard 12-bar rock song with emphas ...
", released in 1987 on the album '' Sign o' the Times'', features the lyric "your body's hecka slammin'...", which would appear to be an early adoption of the term ''hecka'' in its accepted vernacular usage.


Usage


Intensifier

While
intensifier In linguistics, an intensifier (abbreviated ) is a lexical category (but ''not'' a traditional part of speech) for a modifier that makes no contribution to the propositional meaning of a clause but serves to enhance and give additional emotional ...
s similar to ''hella'' exist in many colloquial varieties, ''hella'' is uncommonly flexible. It can be used to modify almost any
part of speech In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech ( abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are ...
, as shown below: *''That pizza was hella good'': ''hella'' modifies the adjective ''good,'' where Standard American English would use ''very''. *''Chris's pizza is hella better than anyone else's'': ''hella'' modifies the adjective ''better'', replacing ''much''. *''I ate hella pizza'': ''hella'' modifies the noun ''pizza'', replacing ''a lot of.'' *''I ran to the pizza joint hella quickly'': ''hella'' modifies the adverb ''quickly'', replacing ''very''. *''Was the party fun last night?'' ''-- Hella!'': ''hella'' is used on its own as a reply replacing ''very'' or ''totally''.


SI prefix

An online petition begun in 2010 by Austin Sendek of
Yreka, California Yreka ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Siskiyou County, California, United States, near the Shasta River; the city has an area of about , most of it land. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,807, reflecting an increase from 7, ...
, seeks to establish "hella-" as the
SI prefix The International System of Units, internationally known by the abbreviation SI (from French ), is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of measurement. It is the only system of measurement with official st ...
for 1027. The prefix was recognized by
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
in May 2010, and
Wolfram Alpha WolframAlpha ( ) is an answer engine developed by Wolfram Research. It is offered as an online service that answers factual queries by computing answers from externally sourced data. History Launch preparations for WolframAlpha began on Ma ...
in May 2011. In 2013, Andrew McAfee suggested the term ''hellabyte'' with this usage. In 2022, the
International Bureau of Weights and Measures The International Bureau of Weights and Measures (, BIPM) is an List of intergovernmental organizations, intergovernmental organisation, through which its 64 member-states act on measurement standards in areas including chemistry, ionising radi ...
adopted the prefix "ronna-" to represent 1027, as the symbol H, commonly used to represent "hella-", is already in use in the metric system for the
Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...
, a unit of inductance.


See also

* Skookum, a similar word used in the
Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...
, from the
Chinook Jargon Chinook Jargon (' or ', also known simply as ''Chinook'' or ''Jargon'') is a language originating as a pidgin language, pidgin trade language in the Pacific Northwest. It spread during the 19th century from the lower Columbia River, first to othe ...
* Jawn, a similar word used in Philadelphia


References


External links


hecka
at the Double-Tongued Dictionary
Hella Facts About the Word Hella by George McIntire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hella (Word) 1990s slang 2000s slang 2010s slang California culture English-language slang English words