# wicked
## English
### Etymology 1

From Middle English wicked, wikked, an alteration of Middle English wicke, wikke (“morally perverse, evil, wicked”). Of uncertain origin. 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 original sense of "evil, mischievous". Compare similar semantic development in terrific and sick.

#### Pronunciation

* enPR: wĭkʹĭd, IPA: /ˈwɪkɪd/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪkɪd

#### Adjective

wicked (comparative wickeder or more wicked, superlative wickedest or most wicked)
* 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
* Harsh; severe.
    wicked wind
* (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

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

#### Adverb

wicked (not comparable)
* (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 originally used in and around Boston, MA, as the intensifying 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; it was never used adverbially in the qualification of verbs. 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 (in adjectival phrases) and as an adjective, not the usage thereof only as an adverb. It should be noted that the Merriam-Webster and American Heritage dictionaries no longer label the adverbial usage, in qualifying/intensifying adjectives, 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
### Etymology 2

See wick.

#### Pronunciation

* enPR: wĭkt, IPA: /wɪkt/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪkt

#### Verb

wicked
* simple past and past participle of wick

#### Adjective

wicked (not comparable)
* 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: /ˈwɪkɪd/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɪkɪd

#### Adjective

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

### References

* “wicked”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* ↑ Hyundai Super Bowl ad has one wicked bad mistake, if you ask Bostonians

### Anagrams

* Dewick

## Middle English
### Adjective

wicked
* Alternative form of wikked

## Yola
### Etymology

From Middle English wikked.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈwɪkəd/

### Adjective

wicked
* 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