[Ads-l] A feeble attempt at popular history of 'wicked'

[Z S]

"Danny Erker, an associate professor of linguistics at Boston University,
said in an email to Boston.com that the first use of “wicked,” used the way
a modern-day Bostonian would, was actually in the 17th century — but by an
Englishman.

“Yesterday was a hot day, a wicked hot day,” Thomas Porter writes in his
1663 play. Porter made linguistic history here as one of the first to use
“wicked” as an intensifier."

The year - 1663 - should give the etymologist pause. The article mentions
the following: “Wicked,” before New Englanders’ meaning “of exceptional
quality or degree,” comes from “wicce” or “wicca,” which comes from
sorcerers and the practice of witchcraft. With Boston’s neighbor Salem and
its infamous witch trials, some sources attribute the term to the widely
publicized atrocities of the 1690s."

When I come upon such origin myths, I am immediately suspicious.

The Native Black American population employs the conspicuous *jai / jaa /
jaav / jaab, jaalike, jaavlike*, and *jaablike*, as an adverb - used
identically to the aforementioned "wicked". I already traced the Native
Black American *jai / jaa / jaav / jaab, jaalike, jaavlike*, and *jaablike*
to the Mandinka *jawuke* 'very', 'really', 'so', etc; < Mandinka *jaw(u)*
'evil', 'wicked', 'bad' + Mandinka *-ke* 'a Mandinka suffix equivalent to
the English "-ly", "-like"'. The 1663 citation and the Boston occurrence is
most likely a semantic calque derived from the very same Manding source.

Not only did the English play a significant role in the Transatlantic
Holocaust, but they also enslaved Africans and the creole progenitors of
Native Black Americans on UK soil. The impact on the language of the UK
population is evident (there are many examples), and I'm certain this use
of "wicked" is coming from that early contact.

ZS

On Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 9:53 PM victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Boston.com: Wickedpedia: When did people in Boston start saying ‘wicked’?
>
>
> https://www.boston.com/news/wickedpedia/2024/07/29/wickedpedia-when-did-people-in-boston-start-saying-wicked/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org