''Hella'' is an American slang term that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area.
It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good" and was eventually added to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' in 2002.
It is possibly a
contraction
Contraction may refer to:
Linguistics
* Contraction (grammar), a shortened word
* Poetic contraction, omission of letters for poetic reasons
* Elision, omission of sounds
** Syncope (phonology), omission of sounds in a word
* Synalepha, merged ...
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.
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
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
, according to linguist
Pamela Munro
Pamela Munro (b. 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 si ...
, ''hella'' is primarily used to modify an
adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Tra ...
such as "good".
According to lexicographer Allan A. Metcalf, the word is a marker of
northern California
Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...
dialect. According to Colleen Cotter, "
Southern California
Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...
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
California English
California English (or Californian English) collectively refers to varieties of American English native to California. A distinctive vowel shift was first noted by linguists in the 1980s in southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area of n ...
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 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; African ...
, 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, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
, collated materials from an urban high school (Mt. Eden High School) in the
Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
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 or hip-hop is a culture and art movement that was created by African Americans, Latino Americans and Caribbean Americans in the Bronx, New York City. Hip hop culture is characterized by four key elements: rapping, DJing and turntablis ...
, though it remained a primarily
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to:
Geography Australia
* Western Australia
*Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia
* West Coast, Tasmania
**West Coast Range, mountain range in the region
Canada
* Britis ...
term. With the release of the 2001
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California, formed in 1986. For most of their career, the band has consisted of vocalist Gwen Stefani, guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal, and drummer Adrian Young. Since the mid-1990s, they ...
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 state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
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 (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as 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 ...
as a common slang term, particularly in
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
and
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
. 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 University of Washington.
The name "Blue Scholars" is ...
and
Macklemore
Benjamin Hammond Haggerty (born June 19, 1983), better known by his stage name Macklemore ( ; (formerly Professor Macklemore), is an American rapper and songwriter. A native of Seattle, Washington, he has collaborated with producer Ryan Lewi ...
regularly use the term in their lyrics; Macklemore uses the word several times in his worldwide hit song "
Thrift Shop
Thrift may refer to:
* Frugality
* A savings and loan association in the United States
* Apache Thrift, a remote procedure call (RPC) framework
* Thrift (plant), a plant in the genus ''Armeria''
* Syd Thrift (1929–2006), American baseball exe ...
".
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 boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
'' episode "
Spookyfish
"Spookyfish" is the fifteenth episode of the 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 October 28, 1998. The epi ...
," which was the 1998
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
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
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
-based band
Hella
''Hella'' is an American slang term that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good" and was eventually added to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in 2002. It is possibl ...
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.
Art
In ...
says "It's everywhere up here.... We thought it was funny, and everyone says it all the time."
''Hella'' was included on the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's list of 20 words that sum up the 2000-2009 decade, defined as "An intensive in
''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
'', 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.
s similar to ''hella'' exist in many colloquial varieties, ''hella'' is uncommonly flexible. It can be used to modify almost any
, as shown below:
*''That pizza was hella good'': ''hella'' modifies the adjective ''good,'' where
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 hella bought four pizzas'': ''hella'' modifies the verb ''to buy'', replacing ''really'' or ''totally''.
*''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''.
.
in May 2011.
suggested the term ''hellabyte'' with this usage.