[Ads-l] "Hella" in the Bay Area Reporter, 1982-85 (was Re: Hella research inquiry)

Wed Nov 18 05:26:31 UTC 2020

> Pom Pons [sic]

I.e. it needs a hyphen: pom-pons. Those of a certain age may recall the
"pom-pom," a double-barreled, medium anti-aircraft gun whose barrels fired
alternately.

Wikipedia:
"The 2-pounder gun, officially designated the Q[ulck-]F[iring] 2-pounder
and universally known as the pom-pom, was a 40-millimetre British
autocannon used as an anti-aircraft gun by the Royal Navy. The name came
from the sound that the original models made when firing."

The two words, "pom-pom" and "pompon" were often confused in speech and,
once that the re-spelling of _pompon_ as "pom-pon," under the influence of
_pom-pom_, became accepted, it wasn't long - since the '50's, at least -
before the spelling, "pom-pom," began to replace the spelling,
"pom-pon"/"pompon."

On Tue, Nov 17, 2020 at 8:29 PM Bill Mullins <amcombill at hotmail.com> wrote:

> A participant in Ben Zimmer's Twitter thread mentions the euphemized
> versions "hecka" and "heck of".
>
> _Bay Area Reporter_  4/28/1983  p 18 col 1
> "Her Pie-Throwing Auction on Sunday, April 17, at the Bench & Bar may have
> raised a hecka bucks for the Oakland Marching Corps (Pom Pons [sic],
> Banners, Flags), but quite a few of the "targets" knew nothing of their
> alleged agreement to be available."
>
> Nicole Monet _The Sandcastle Man_ NY: Silhouette Books, 1986  pp. 67-68
> "Brian Fulsom and Freddie Gilmore wear theirs, and they look hecka bad."
>
> Meredith Maran _Class Dismissed:  A Year in the Life of an American High
> School_  NY: St. Martin's Press, 2001.  p. 185 [set at Berkeley High School]
> "Even his name is heck of cool, she muses dreamily."
>
> Sheila Escovedo ("Sheila E") says in her memoir _The Beat of My Own Drum_
> that she and her friends were using both forms (hella/hecka) in the
> mid-1970s in the SF Bay area.
>
>
>
> ----
>
> As a follow-up to the WSJ column, I put together a long Twitter thread with
> more research findings, including the Berkeley HS "hell of" examples
> discussed below.
>
> https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/1327810512428601344
>
> On Sat, Nov 14, 2020 at 6:16 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > My latest column for the Wall Street Journal is all about the history of
> > "hella," incorporating the Bay Area Reporter evidence that I uncovered
> > going back to 1982.
> >
> >
> > Caution-
> https://www.wsj.com/articles/hella-a-heck-of-a-superlative-by-way-of-oakland-11605293046
> > non-paywalled version: Caution-https://archive.is/PYVrD
> >
> > I also mention the "hell of" examples that Peter Reitan found in the
> > Berkeley High School yearbook. Peter had taken that back to the 1983-84
> > yearbook, where "hell of" tops the list of "Most Used Slang."
> >
> > Caution-
> https://archive.org/details/ollapodrida1983unse/page/124/mode/1up
> >
> > Since my column was published, earlier examples have come to light in the
> > BHS yearbooks available on the Internet Archive (scanned and digitized by
> > the Berkeley Public Library). Robin Melnick pointed me to this from the
> > 1981 yearbook:
> >
> > ---
> > Caution-
> https://archive.org/details/ollapodrida1980unse/page/158/mode/1up
> > Berkeley High School Yearbook, 1980-81, p. 158
> > "Man, there were hell of foxes at BHS this year."
> > ---
> >
> > There are even earlier examples of "hell of" in handwritten notes found
> in
> > the scanned yearbooks. Here are the two earliest I've found:
> >
> > ---
> > Caution-
> https://archive.org/details/ollapodrida1978unse/page/n355/mode/1up
> > Berkeley High School Yearbook, 1978-79 (no page number)
> > "Too bad you didn't go to Santa Cruz cause it was hell of live."
> > ---
> > Caution-https://archive.org/details/ollapodrida1979unse/page/n2/mode/1up
> > Berkeley High School Yearbook, 1979-80 (no page number)
> > "We shared hell of pain together."
> > ---
> >
> > So that pushes back the intensifier ("hell of live") to 1979 and the
> > quantifier ("hell of pain") to 1980.
> >
> > --bgz
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 9:17 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Following Peter Reitan's lead, I checked the Internet Archive for San
> >> Francisco Bay Area sources from the '80s and came across some important
> >> "hella" antedatings. In the Bay Area Reporter, a weekly alternative
> >> newspaper serving the LGBT community, there are several examples of
> "hella"
> >> used as both an adverb and adjective dating all the way back to 1982,
> four
> >> years earlier than what had previously been found. Below are examples
> from
> >> '82, '83, '84, and '85, all from the same Oakland-based columnist who
> used
> >> the pen name "Nez Pas." That further reinforces the idea that "hella"
> >> originated in the East Bay (as suggested by later examples, like those
> from
> >> James Hetfield and Too $hort in '86).
> >>
> >> According to this article, the real name of "Nez Pas" is Peter Palm:
> >> Caution-https://www.ebar.com/entertainment/culture/173481
> >> "And to keep up on the lively bar scene in the East Bay, there was a
> >> column by Nez Pas, known in real life as Peter Palm, the co-owner of
> Revol
> >> at 3924 Telegraph with his partner Ralph Tate. Nez Pas kept his readers
> up
> >> on the community events in Oakland, Walnut Creek and Hayward."
> >>
> >> Here are the cites:
> >>
> >> ----
> >> Caution-https://archive.org/details/BAR_19820311/page/n15/mode/2up
> >> Bay Area Reporter, Mar. 11, 1982, p. 17, col. 3
> >> Nez Pas, "Oakland: Chuck of Montclair"
> >> Until next time with the bits and pieces, take the time to find out
> about
> >> someone... you just might be "hella surprised!"
> >> ----
> >> Caution-https://archive.org/details/BAR_19831027/page/n19/mode/2up
> >> Bay Area Reporter, Oct. 27, 1983, p. 21, col. 1
> >> Nez Pas, "Oakland: Buckle Your Seat Belts"
> >> Graham promises a lot of entertainment on video screens throughout both
> >> bars, scrumptious victuals, "hella" contests, and mucho prizes!
> >> ----
> >> Caution-https://archive.org/details/BAR_19841025/page/n19/mode/2up
> >> Bay Area Reporter, Oct. 25, 1984, p. 21, col. 1
> >> Nez Pas, "Oakland: Royal Summit, Meet the Monarchs"
> >> Third: Lengthy, drawn-out cants aren't necessary in raising "hella"
> >> bucks.
> >> ----
> >> Caution-https://archive.org/details/BAR_19850307/page/n17/mode/2up
> >> Bay Area Reporter, Mar. 7, 1985, p. 19, col. 2
> >> Nez Pas, "Oakland: Kudos Galore"
> >> And speaking of March 10, a "hella" interest is being shown in the
> >> "Wizard of Oz Party" at Big Mama's that date.
> >> ----
> >>
> >> --bgz
> >>
> >> On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 4:26 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> In a 2016 post, I shared two "hella" citations from 1986, one from a
> >>> magazine interview with James Hetfield of Metallica and one from
> lyrics by
> >>> the rapper Too $hort.
> >>>
> >>> Caution-
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2016-March/141400.html
> >>>
> >>> I also posted a screenshot of the Hetfield interview on Twitter. (He
> >>> actually used "hella" twice: "I'm hella paranoid" and "Yeah, hella" in
> >>> response to "Does that scare you?")
> >>>
> >>> Caution-https://twitter.com/bgzimmer/status/713000098276511744
> >>>
> >>> --bgz
> >>>
> >>> On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 3:50 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> For a student working at the Yale Grammatical Diversity Project, I’m
> >>>> wondering if anyone has any suggestions on early cites and history of
> >>>> “hella”.  OED and HDAS both have 1987 for the earliest cite, but I
> suspect
> >>>> that can now be antedated. At HDAS, Jon classifies it as a prefix but
> it’s
> >>>> clearly shed that restriction when used in frames like the attested
> “This
> >>>> chair reclines hella”, and I’d be inclined to go with the OED’s entry
> >>>> listing it as an adverb (“hella fast/smart/funny”) and adjective
> (“hella
> >>>> memory/pride/stairs”).  Our survey results are generally consistent
> with
> >>>> the widespread view that it’s a Californianism (although while the
> >>>> shibboleth still associates it with Northern California, that appears
> to no
> >>>> longer be true), while also showing that it’s expanded well beyond
> that.
> >>>> (DARE doesn’t have a separate entry, and just one cite, from Berkeley,
> >>>> within the entry for “tight”. In terms of etymology, can we go beyond
> the
> >>>> OED’s disjunctive suggestion, "Probably shortened < either helluva
> adj. or
> >>>> hellacious adj.”?  Is there any literature the student should check
> out?
> >>>> We’d be hella grateful!
> >>>>
> >>>>
>
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>
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>

-- 
- Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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