Lets talk Wicked!
We have a new game on Kickstarter for just 10 more days called "Cool Cool Cool". It's a fast, fun, affirmative card game that literally slaps.
We're picking words in our game that started as one meaning and became popularized to mean something else. Words that are affirmations, roll off the tongue easily, and feel kind of great when you shout them or hear them. Words that are slang: in that they are coinages, arbitrarily changed words, and extravagant, facetious figures of speech, as Miriam Webster likes to say.
In the last blog post about the game we talked about the word Cool- now lets talk Wicked.
The word Wicked is an alteration of the Middle English wicke and is defined to mean morally bad, disgustingly unpleasant, causing or likely to cause harm- but if you live in New England, you most likely know it used in a much different way. There, wicked is a common regional slang word used as an intensifier; an example in this headline "John Kerry is Wicked psyched he found Dunkin Donuts in Moscow."
I love the illustration Mac Schubert did for this card, in that it's clearly the definition of Wicked, but also "we're just a coven having fun roasting marshmallows with our goat friend" vibe. Paired with this, one of the rule cards in the game is called "The Nor'Easter", which refers to the type of storm that forms along the east coast of North America. When this rule card is in effect, the first player to slap the card pile whenever Wicked and Cool are played wins the card pile. Wicked sweet.
If you look closely, you'll also see this coven and goat friends in the pattern design on the Wicked cool game mat. Hidden patterns can be viewed as Wicked but we think it's just Wicked sick.
How did this word evolve in this way? Well, Miriam Webster says this but it seems they dont entirely know for sure.
Wicked happens to be a regional slang word we know best, as both Keith and I went to college in Maine.
Do you have an affirmative slang word that's specific to your region? I wanna know! Tell me in comments!
-Jenn
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