Friday, April 26, 2013

W is for Wicked

Although I grew up in upstate New York, my family is originally from New England - just outside of Boston to be a bit more specific. Aside from a few Midwestern hiccups (and I have no idea where those came from), my accent is almost neutral. 

And I hated it. 

During the summers we'd gather with my grandparents in Maine for a few glorious weeks of fun and freedom playing capture the flag in the street, swimming in the frigid Atlantic, crabbing, and hunting salamanders in the woods. The best of all times was when my cousins trips coincided with ours. I loved listening to them talk. The dropped Rs, the long drawn out vowels. It was a beautiful thing, perhaps even the start of my love affair with accents (although as I got older I grew more and more fascinated with European accents over American ones). 

I idolized my cousin Mike. Out of all my cousins he was my favorite growing up. He never ignored me, never talked down to me, and he always made time to play with me even though he was six years older. Of course, rosy glasses being what they are, I'm sure my siblings and Mike could list hundreds of times when he joined in teasing me or, you know, locking me and his other female cousins in the bunkhouse.

I loved the Muppet Show - I still do actually - and when Mike would visit he would have be practice my Miss Piggy karate chops of rolls of paper towels and he'd sing, "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" while I hi-yah'd away at the paper towels. Best of all, he'd tell me I was wicked cool in that awesome accent.

Is it any wonder why I adored him so much?

Wicked, from the 1980s, can be used as both and adjective and a adverb. As an adjective it means excellent or outstanding, when used as an adverb it means very.

Example: Wilson wandered down a wide woody path, "Wow! Those weeping willows are wicked!"

This post has been brought to you by the Letter W and the fine folks at Blogging A to Z. Check out more A to Z blogs here

13 comments:

  1. This is a wickedly good post ;) Excellent word choice. I love it.

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  2. That alliteration in the example. I loved it totally.

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    1. Certainly think it was one of my better examples and I didn't even need to bust out the thesaurus!

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  3. "Aww yeah, me and Robbo are goin to watch the Sawks (aka Red Sox) down at Lawry's, it's gonna be wicked awesome."
    Not the biggest fan of the New England accent, but it sure is fun to imitate, and no imitation is complete without "wicked."

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    1. Oh I'm a big fan of the Boston accent. It makes me smile because it reminds me of all the fun times I had growing up and visiting with my family!

      But...yeah...accents in and of themselves are always fun to imitate!

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  4. I've always liked that accent. I think Matt Damon and Ben Affleck had it in Good Will Hunting? Wicked sexy :)

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    1. Not a huge fan of Damon or Affleck, but yeah the accent makes them better!

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  5. Your cousin sounds really cool. I love accents as well. I never thought I had one & didn't until I met my husband. Now, ever so often, I sound like I was born in the south, not Michigan. I catch myself sometimes and feel like I belong in the Duke's of Hazard:)

    Jaime at Awakenings and Reflections

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    1. Since moving to Florida I've picked up on some slightly southern ways of speech. I "y'all" people now. And if I'm with a bunch of people that have strong southern accents I tend to slide into one myself.

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  6. That is a very cool accent... And I feel like we should bring Wicked back.

    Hugs!

    Valerie

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    1. I'm all for it! Bring back wicked and popped collars!!

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  7. Miss Piggy was defiantly one awesome female role model back when we were kids. Which is both great and a little sad in that she was one of the better one's annndddd also a talking pig.

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    1. What's not to love about Miss Piggy? A strong female character that loved being pampered but could also kick ass when needed? And ride a motorcycle? She's wicked cool!

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