“Language is wine upon the lips.” — Virginia Woolf
Why do we have this hella great word? There are lots of details about its origins and current usage on Wikipedia, but we encourage you to add to this entry more information about its history, association with Oakland specifically (as opposed to its association with Northern California), and personal narratives and creative usages of the term.
- I’d be he… er, very interested to learn how it went from just a word to “an O-town thing”.
- Totally apart from its function as a word, it recalls other words, like “hyphy” and “sideshow”. (links coming … or maybe not)
Links and References
- The Origins of Hella KQED News August 20, 2015
- Hella on Wikipedia