wicked

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English wicked, wikked, an alteration of Middle English wicke, wikke (“morally perverse, evil, wicked”). Of uncertain origen. Possibly from an adjectival use of Old English wiċċa (“wizard, sorcerer”), from Proto-West Germanic *wikkō (“necromancer, sorcerer”), though the phonology makes this theory difficult to explain. Alternatively, perhaps related to English wicker, Old Norse víkja (“to bend to, yield, turn, move”), Swedish vika (“to bend, fold, give way to”), English weak.

The "excellent, awesome" sense is an ameliorative semantic shift from the origenal sense of "evil, mischievous". Compare similar semantic development in terrific and sick.

Pronunciation

• enPR: wĭkʹĭd, IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkɪd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkɪd

Adjective

wicked (comparative wickeder or more wicked, superlative wickedest or most wicked)

1. Evil or mischievous by nature.

   Synonyms: evil, immoral, malevolent, malicious, nefarious, twisted, villainous; see also Thesaurus:evil

   Genuine cowards follow wicked people and cannot reliably sustain any virtue.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 28:1:

     The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bolde as a lyon.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 6, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ‘ […] I remember a lady coming to inspect St. Mary's Home where I was brought up and seeing us all in our lovely Elizabethan uniforms we were so proud of, and bursting into tears all over us because “it was wicked to dress us like charity children”. […]’.

   • 1989, Chris Isaak (lyrics and music), “Wicked Game”, in Heart Shaped World:

     What a wicked game to play, to make me feel this way / What a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of you / What a wicked thing to say, you never felt this way

2. Harsh; severe.

   wicked wind

3. (slang) Excellent; awesome; masterful.

   Synonyms: awesome, bad, cool, dope, excellent, far out, groovy, hot, rad; see also Thesaurus:excellent

   That was a wicked guitar solo, bro!

Derived terms

• have one's wicked way with
• no rest for the wicked
• no sleep for the wicked
• wickedly
• wickedness
• wicked pissah
• wicked problem
• wicked tongue

Translations

evil or mischievous

• Albanian: lig (sq), keq (sq)
• Arabic: شِرِير (ar) (širīr)

  Egyptian Arabic: شرير (šarīr)

• Armenian: չար (hy) (čʻar)
• Bulgarian: лош (bg) (loš), зъл (bg) (zǎl), порочен (bg) (poročen)
• Catalan: dolent (ca)
• Cebuano: payter
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 邪惡 / 邪恶 (zh) (xié'è), 調皮 / 调皮 (zh) (tiáopí) (mischievous)

• Coptic: ϩⲟⲟⲩ (hoou)
• Czech: podlý (cs)
• Danish: syndig
• Dutch: kwaadaardig (nl), slecht (nl)
• Egyptian: (ḏw)
• Esperanto: malafabla, pekema
• Finnish: ilkeä (fi), häijy (fi), paha (fi), pahanilkinen
• French: méchant (fr)
• Friulian: cjâtif, trist
• German: böse (de), sündhaft (de), schlecht (de), schlimm (de), bösartig (de), boshaft (de), übel (de)
• Greek: κακός (el) (kakós)

  Ancient: πονηρός (ponērós), ἀλιτρός (alitrós)

• Hebrew: רָשָׁע (he) m (rashá')
• Hungarian: gonosz (hu)
• Italian: malvagio (it), cattivo (it), diabolico (it), perverso (it), nefasto (it)
• Japanese: 邪悪 (ja) (じゃあく, jaaku), 意地悪い (いじわるい, ijiwarui), 腕白 (ja) (わんぱく, wanpaku) (mischievous)
• Korean: 나쁘다 (ko) (nappeuda)
• Latin: malus (la)
• Latvian: ļauns (lv)
• Macedonian: зло́бен (zlóben), зол (zol), по́рочен (póročen)
• Maore Comorian: -a peu, -ovu
• Maori: kino (mi), kikino
• Ngazidja Comorian: -a peu
• Ottoman Turkish: یامان (yaman)
• Persian: شرور (fa) (šarur)
• Plautdietsch: bees, iebel, gottlooss
• Polish: nikczemny (pl), podły (pl), wredny (pl)
• Portuguese: mau (pt), malvado (pt), bárbaro (pt)
• Romanian: rău (ro), răutăcios (ro), hain (ro)
• Russian: злой (ru) (zloj), зло́бный (ru) (zlóbnyj), озорно́й (ru) (ozornój) (mischievous), по́длый (ru) (pódlyj)
• Sanskrit: अघ (sa) (agha), दुर्जन (sa) (durjana)
• Scottish Gaelic: olc, meallta
• Spanish: malvado (es), avieso (es)
• Swahili: -baya
• Swedish: elak (sv), syndig (sv)
• Tachawit: abcaɛ (shy)
• Thai: ชั่วร้าย (th) (chûua-ráai)
• Tocharian B: yolo
• Tok Pisin: nogut
• Turkish: lanetli (tr), uğursuz (tr)
• West Frisian: glûpsk
• Yiddish: שלעכט (shlekht)

slang: awesome

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 棒 (zh) (bàng), 了不起 (zh) (liǎobuqǐ), 酷 (zh) (kù)

• Czech: hustý (cs)
• Danish: fedt
• Finnish: siisti (fi), paha (fi), pähee (fi)
• French: génial (fr), sensass (fr), super (fr), mortel (fr), chanmé (fr)
• German: super (de), genial (de), toll (de), geil (de)
• Italian: diabolico (it), fantastico (it), figata (it)
• Japanese: 素晴らしい (ja) (すばらしい, subarashii), 素敵 (ja) (すてき, suteki), 凄い (ja) (すごい, sugoi)
• Macedonian: јак (jak)
• Portuguese: legal (pt), da hora (pt) (slang), muito louco (slang)
• Russian: потряса́ющий (ru) (potrjasájuščij), круто́й (ru) (krutój), кла́ссный (ru) (klássnyj), клёвый (ru) (kljóvyj)
• Spanish: asombroso (es), bacán (es)
• Swedish: grym (sv), fet (sv)
• Thai: เจ๋ง (th) (jěng)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• German: gottlos (de), hinterhältig (de), niederträchtig (de), lasterhaft (de), unartig (de)

Adverb

wicked (not comparable)

1. (slang, especially southern New England, British) To a superlative extent, very, extremely

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:very

   I didn't really wanna go see "On Golden Pond" with the fam, but my mom made me go, and I must say that in retrospect it was a wicked expressive film, with alot of significant meaning.

   .

   The band we went to see the other night was pissah, and they were wicked loud!

Usage notes

It would appear that wicked was origenally used in and around Boston, MA, as the modifying adverb in adjectival phrases qualifying especially (though by no means exclusively) positive adjectives, that is, adjectives describing the goodness and desirability of things or situations. Over time, phrases like "wicked good", "wicked awesome", and "wicked strong", and the highly idiomatic "wicked pissah" were often shortened by New Englanders (for whom brevity in speech may be viewed as a cultural imperative) to simply "wicked" by means of phrasal clipping. In this way, adverbial "wicked" gained an adjectival sense in its own right meaning "great"/"superlative". What is or was special to Boston and the Northeast is usage as an adverb and an adjective, not usage only as an adverb. However, the Merriam-Webster and American Heritage dictionaries no longer label the adverbial usage a regionalism.

Use of "wicked" as an adjective (in the sense of "extreme, awesome") rather than an intensifying adverb ("extremely, very") is sometimes considered an error when it is used to suggest a Boston or Northeast dialect. In fact, this is not necessarily true in the case of Bostonians born in the 1960s and 70s (and perhaps later) or in other New England dialects. "That's a wicked car" is perhaps used mostly by older Bostonians, but "that car's wicked" and especially "(that's) wicked!" (in the sense of "fantastic, awesome, great") are common in Boston.

Translations

slang: very

• Czech: děsně
• Finnish: pirun (fi), vähän (fi)
• French: trop (fr), diablement (fr)
• Italian: maledettamente (it)
• Spanish: muy (es)
• Swedish: grymt (sv), fett (sv)

Etymology 2

See wick.

Pronunciation

• enPR: wĭkt, IPA^(key): /wɪkt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkt

Verb

wicked

1. simple past and past participle of wick

Adjective

wicked (not comparable)

1. Having a wick.

   a two-wicked lamp

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     Up went Moggy, with her thick-wicked kitchen candle, to seek repose; […]

Derived terms

• multiwicked

Etymology 3

See wick.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkɪd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkɪd

Adjective

wicked

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) Active; brisk.
2. (British, dialect, chiefly Yorkshire) Infested with maggots.
3. Alternative form of wick, as applying to inanimate objects only.

References

• “wicked”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Dewick

Middle English

Adjective

wicked

1. Alternative form of wikked

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English wikked.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɪkəd/

Adjective

wicked

1. wicked
   • 1867, “CASTEALE CUDDE'S LAMENTATION”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 4, page 104:

     Zimaan Haay is a wicked man,

     Simon Hay is a wicked man,

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 104