{{Use American English|date = March 2019}} {{Short description|American slang meaning "very" or "a lot"}} {{Use mdy dates|date = March 2019}} {{About|the word}} {{redirect|Helluva|the American record producer|Helluva (producer)}} {{italic title}} thumb|'Hella' as used in Northern California|200px '''''Hella''''' is an American English slang term originating in and often associated with San Francisco's East Bay area in Northern California, possibly specifically emerging in the 1970s African-American vernacular of Oakland.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Boboc |first=Wellesley |title=To Hella and Back: A Syntactic Analysis of ''hella'' in Dialects of American English |url=https://as.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyu-as/linguistics/documents/Boboc%20Thesis_Final.pdf |type=Senior honors thesis (undergraduate) |date=April 2016 |page=11 |publisher=New York University}}</ref><ref name="Eghan">{{Cite news |last=Eghan |first=Adizah |date=November 17, 2016 |title=The Origins of 'Hella' |url=https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/11/17/the-origins-of-hella |work=KQED}}</ref> It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good". It was eventually added to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in 2002, citing a 1987 first use in the ''Toronto Star''.<ref name="Eghan" /><ref name="OED">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2002 |title=hella, adv. and adj. |encyclopedia=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=Third}}</ref> It is possibly a contraction of the phrase "hell of a" or "hell of a lot [of]", in turn reduced to "hell of",<ref name="OED" /> though some scholars doubt this etymology since its grammatical usage does not align with those phrases; or of "hellacious".<ref name="Eghan" /> 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, according to linguist Pamela Munro, ''hella'' is primarily used to modify an adjective such as "good".<ref name="VOA">{{Cite news |date=2002-12-19 |title=Campus Slang |url=https://www.manythings.org/voa/wm/wm185.html |access-date=2008-02-13 |publisher=Voice of America}}</ref>
According to lexicographer Allan A. Metcalf, the word is a marker of northern California dialect.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Allan A. Metcalf |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780618043637 |title=How We Talk: American Regional English Today |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Reference Books |year=2000 |isbn=0-618-04362-4 |url-access=registration}}</ref> According to Colleen Cotter, "Southern Californians 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.{{Clarify|date=April 2021}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Colleen Cotter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RSkUXkI14pAC |title=USA Phrasebook |publisher=Lonely Planet |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-86450-182-7}}</ref>
==History==
===Early use=== ''Hella'' has likely existed in northern California English since at least the mid-1970s. Geoff Nunberg, a UC Berkeley linguist, has theorized on the origins of the slang term "hella".<ref name="Eghan" /> "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,<ref name="Eghan" /> an area that, at one point, was 47% African American.{{cn|date=December 2021}}
By 1993, Mary Bucholtz, a linguist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, collated materials from an urban high school (Mt. Eden High School) in the Bay Area and found that ''hella'' was "used among Bay Area youth of all racial, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds and both genders."<ref name="Bucholtz2006">{{Cite book |last=Bucholtz |first=Mary |author-link=Mary Bucholtz |url=https://archive.org/details/culturalapproach0000mona |title=A Cultural Approach to Interpersonal Communication: Essential Readings |publisher=Blackwell |year=2006 |isbn=9781405125956 |editor-last=Goodman |editor-first=Jane |location=Malden, MA |pages=243–267 |chapter=Word Up: Social Meanings of Slang in California Youth Culture |oclc=71243975 |access-date=2014-05-25 |editor-last2=Monaghan |editor-first2=Leila |chapter-url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0c7141bs}}</ref> ''Hella'' remains part of the dialect of northern California, where it has grown in popularity.<ref name="Eghan" />
===Spread=== By 1997, the word had spread to hip hop culture, though it remained a primarily West Coast term.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lynette Holloway |date=January 5, 1997 |title=Shorties and Scholars Agree, the Word Is Rap |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E2D61739F936A35752C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |access-date=2008-02-12 |work=The New York Times}}</ref> With the release of the 2001 No Doubt song "Hella Good," one Virginian transplant in California "fear[ed] the worst: nationwide acceptance of this wretched term."<ref>{{Cite news |last=David Gentry |date=May 16, 2002 |title=I Hate Hella, All Montagues, and Thee |url=http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2002/05/16/essayonhellabygentry.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704105704/http://www.readthehook.com/Stories/2002/05/16/essayonhellabygentry.html |archive-date=July 4, 2008 |access-date=2008-02-13 |publisher=The Hook |location=Charlottesville, Virginia}}</ref> Since the early 1990s ''hella'' has been used regularly in the Pacific Northwest as a common slang term, particularly in Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Popular area rappers Blue Scholars and Macklemore regularly use the term in their lyrics; Macklemore uses the word several times in his worldwide hit song "Thrift Shop".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thrift Shop |url=https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/27997730/Thrift+Shop |website=lyrics.com}}</ref>
In the ''South Park'' episode "Spookyfish," which was the 1998 Halloween special, the character Cartman repeatedly used the term ''hella'' to the annoyance of the other characters,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Spooky Fish Recap |url=http://www.tv.com/south-park/spooky-fish/episode/2444/recap.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080322043606/http://www.tv.com/south-park/spooky-fish/episode/2444/recap.html |archive-date=2008-03-22 |access-date=2008-02-13 |publisher=TV.com}}</ref> which contributed to its currency spreading nationally.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kristin Carmichael |date=Spring 1999 |title=Yo, yo, yo ... Catch this Slang is used to unify the masses |url=http://www.csuchico.edu/jour/catbytes/s99/slang.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724132709/http://www.csuchico.edu/jour/catbytes/s99/slang.htm |archive-date=2008-07-24 |access-date=2008-02-13 |work=CatBytes |publisher=California State University, Chico}}</ref> "You guys are hella stupid" is one of the phrases spoken by a talking Cartman doll released in 2006.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Luigi Lugmayr |date=October 28, 2006 |title=Must Have: Talking Cartman Action Figure |url=http://www.i4u.com/article6942.html |access-date=2008-02-13 |website=I4U News}}</ref> The Sacramento–based band Hella chose its name for the regional association; Zach Hill says "It's everywhere up here.... We thought it was funny, and everyone says it all the time."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jeremy Scherer |date=October 15, 2003 |title=Hella: Slang name for a band that's hard to pigeonhole |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=VDBB&p_theme=vdbb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0FE6CF3366EEB29E&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM |access-date=2008-02-14 |publisher=Inland Valley Daily Bulletin}}</ref>
''Hella'' was included on the BBC's list of 20 words that sum up the 2000–2009 decade, defined as "An intensive in Youthspeak, generally substituting for the word ''very''".<ref>{{Cite news |date=December 14, 2009 |title=A Portrait of the Decade |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8409040.stm |access-date=2009-12-14 |publisher=BBC}}</ref>
Paralleling the use of the minced oath ''heck'', some people use ''hecka'' in place of ''hella''.<ref name="Eghan" /> Younger school children may be required to use this form.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Chawkins |first=Steve |date=2010-07-06 |title=Physics major has a name for a really big number |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jul-06-la-me-hella-20100706-story.html |access-date=2014-04-05 |work=Los Angeles Times |quote=Sendek, who was forced to use hecka as a child...}}</ref> Church culture in Northern California also encouraged usage of ''hecka'' over ''hella''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 24, 2014 |title=How To Use Hella (RE: Language & Slang) |url=https://hitrecord.org/records/1595149 |access-date=2020-04-09 |publisher=HITRECORD}}</ref>
The Prince song "U Got The Look", 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Grant |first=Sarah |date=2017-06-07 |title=Sheila E. Remembers Private Life With Prince, Wild 'Purple Rain' Parties |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/sheila-e-on-princes-wooing-wild-purple-rain-parties-w486152 |access-date=2017-06-12 |work=Rolling Stone Magazine |quote=It's an Oakland thing.}}</ref>
==Usage==
===Intensifier=== While intensifiers similar to ''hella'' exist in many colloquial varieties, ''hella'' is uncommonly flexible. It can be used to modify almost any part of speech, as shown below:<ref>{{Cite web |last=Skoultchi |first=Mark |date=2011-02-01 |title=Have a Hella Good Time: On Intensifiers and Antonyms |url=https://catchwordbranding.com/catchthis/blog-categories/fun-stuff/have-a-hella-good-time-on-intensifiers-and-antonyms |website=Catchword}}</ref>
*''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, seeks to establish "hella-" as the SI prefix for 10<sup>27</sup>.<ref name="Telegraph 2010-03-02">{{Cite news |last=Moore |first=Matthew |date=2010-03-02 |title=Hella number: scientists call for new word for 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/7352204/Hella-number-scientists-call-for-new-word-for-1000000000000000000000000000.html |access-date=2010-06-04 |work=The Telegraph |location=London |quote=More than 20,000 scientists, students and members of the public have signed an online petition backing the new quantity, which would be used for figures with 27 zeros after the first digit.}}</ref> The prefix was recognized by Google in May 2010,<ref name="Wired 2010 June">{{Cite magazine |date=June 2010 |title=Jargon Watch |magazine=Wired |volume=18 |issue=6 |quote=...a proposed metric prefix...useful for describing mega-measurements like Earth's mass (6 Hellagrams). The International Committee for Weights and Measures agreed to consider it after a Facebook petition garnered 30,000 signatures}}</ref><ref name="Petition">{{Cite web |title=The Official Petition to Establish "Hella-" as the SI Prefix for 10^27 |url=http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Official-Petition-to-Establish-Hella-as-the-SI-Prefix-for-1027/277479937276?v=info |access-date=2010-06-04 |publisher=Facebook}}</ref><ref name="Kim 2010-05-24">{{Cite news |last=Kim |first=Ryan |date=2010-05-24 |title=Google gets behind 'hella' campaign |url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?&entry_id=64240 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528013345/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?&entry_id=64240 |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 28, 2010 |access-date=2010-06-04 |work=The San Francisco Chronicle}}</ref> and Wolfram Alpha in May 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Austin |date=May 31, 2011 |title=First goes Google, now goes WolframAlpha |url=https://www.makehellaofficial.blogspot.com/2011/05/first-google-now-wolfram-alpha.html |access-date=18 October 2012}}</ref> In 2013, Andrew McAfee suggested the term ''hellabyte'' with this usage.<ref name="wsj-hellabyte">{{Cite news |last=Boulton |first=Clint |date=2013-10-07 |title=Big Data Headed For 'Hellabyte' Metric, Says Andrew McAfee |url=https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2013/10/07/big-data-headed-for-hellabyte-metric-says-andrew-mcafee/ |access-date=2019-04-21 |work=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref> In 2022, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures adopted the prefix "ronna-" to represent 10<sup>27</sup>, as the symbol H, commonly used to represent "hella-", is already in use in the metric system for the Henry, a unit of inductance.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Elizabeth Gibney |date=18 November 2022 |title=How many yottabytes in a quettabyte? Extreme numbers get new names |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03747-9 |journal=Nature |doi=10.1038/d41586-022-03747-9 |pmid=36400954 |s2cid=253671538|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
==See also== * Skookum, a similar word used in the Pacific Northwest, from the Chinook Jargon * Jawn, a similar word used in Philadelphia
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
== External links == {{Wiktionary|hella}} * [http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/hecka/ hecka] at the Double-Tongued Dictionary * [http://www.thebolditalic.com/articles/5420-hella-facts-about-the-word-hella Hella Facts About the Word Hella by George McIntire] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140728095459/http://www.thebolditalic.com/articles/5420-hella-facts-about-the-word-hella |date=July 28, 2014 }}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hella (Word)}} Category:1990s slang Category:2000s slang Category:2010s slang Category:Culture of California Category:English-language slang Category:English words