Origins of 'sick' meaning noteworthy, admirable, exceptional, etc.

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:08 PM -0400 3/30/11, Martin Kaminer wrote:
>My son chose his 11th birthday to ask me about this. Clearly words
>developing slang meanings opposite to their original definitions

as in "bad" (, badder, baddest).  It's been discussed in terms of
"in-group" meanings exploiting the ignorance of those on the outside.

>is common
>in many languages but I couldn't find anything specific about the phenomenon
>when I poked around online. I imagine there's even a term for it.

Well, it's a subcase of the well- (or at least frequently-) explored
phenomenon of "the antithetical sense of primal words", as Freud
called it in a review that just celebrated its centennial.  But the
focus there, and more generally in the case of words with opposite
senses--antilogy, enantionymy, Janus words, contronyms, or whatever
you want to call it (as in "cleave", "fast", "cipher", "sanction",
"to dust", even "literally")--isn't specifically on the case of a
slang opposite developing for an established word as you describe it,
and I don't know of a term that zeroes in on that process.

LH

>  Regardless any pointers appreciated, those specific to slang uses of the
>words 'sick' or 'ill' all the more so.
>
>Much thanks.
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org