Wrong and Holla

[Gwyn Alcock]

I picked up "wrong" from co-workers in Northern California about six years
ago.

Usually the stress of the sentence will be on wrong, the final word in the
sentence: "This is _wrong_."

It can refer to something ill-formed or incorrectly done, something or a
situation that's rotten (literally or figuratively), offensive, or unjust.
Usage can range from jesting or teasing to quite serious.

Gwyn Alcock
Redlands, California

-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On
Behalf Of Benjamin Barrett
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2004 6:16 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Wrong and Holla

This quarter, a student has used wrong and holla in interesting ways.

He uses wrong as a predicate to mean unfair. "This is wrong," he proclaims,
meaning the way a paper was graded was wrong.