Hella is an American slang term that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area, but has since spread to become native slang to all of Northern California. It is used to describe such as 'hella bad' or 'hella good', and eventually added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002. It is probably a contraction of the phrase "hell of a" or "hell of a lot [of]", in turn reduced to "hell of", though some scholars doubt this etymology. It often appears in place of the words "really," "a lot," "totally," "very" and in some cases "yes". Whereas hell of a is generally used with a noun, according to linguist Pamela Munro, hella is primarily used to modify an adjective such as "good."
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According to lexicographer Allan A. Metcalf, the word is a marker of Northern California dialect. According to Colleen Cotter, "Southern Californians know the term ... but rarely use it." Sometimes the term grippa is used to mock "NorCal" dialect, with the actual meaning being the opposite of hella.
Early use
Hella has likely existed in California English since at least the mid-1970s. By 1993, Mary Bucholtz, a linguist at the University of California, Santa Barbara collated materials from an urban high school (Mount Eden High School) in the Bay Area, and found that hella was "used among Bay Area youth of all racial, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds and both genders." Hella remains part of the dialect of Northern California, where it has grown in popularity.
Spread
By 1997 the word had spread to hip hop culture, though it remained a primarily West Coast term. With the release of the 2001 No Doubt song "Hella Good," one Virginian transplant in California "fear[ed] the worst: nationwide acceptance of this wretched term." Since the early '90s 'hella' has been used regularly in the Pacific Northwest as a common slang term, particularly in Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Popular area rappers Blue Scholars and Macklemore regularly use the term in their lyrics; Macklemore uses the word several times in his worldwide hit song "Thrift Shop".
In the South Park episode "Spookyfish," which was the 1998 Halloween special, the character Cartman repeatedly used the term hella to the annoyance of the other characters, which contributed to its currency spreading nationally. "You guys are hella stupid" is one of the phrases spoken by a talking Cartman doll released in 2006. The Sacramento-based band Hella chose its name for the regional association; Zach Hill says "It's everywhere up here.... We thought it was funny, and everyone says it all the time."
Hella was included on the BBC's list of 20 words that sum up the 2000-2009 decade, defined as "An intensive in Youthspeak, generally substituting for the word very".
Paralleling the use of the minced oath heck, some people use hecka in place of hella. Younger school children may be required to use this form.
The Prince song U Got The Look, released in 1987 on the album Sign o' the Times, features the lyric "your body's hecka slammin'...", which would appear to be an early adoption of the term hecka in its accepted vernacular usage.
Intensifier
While intensifiers similar to hella exist in many colloquial varieties, hella is unique in its flexibility. It can be used to modify almost any part of speech, as shown below .
That pizza was hella good: hella modifies the adjective good, where Standard American English would use very.
Chris's pizza is hella better than anyone else's: hella modifies the adjective better, replacing much.
I ate hella pizza: hella modifies the noun pizza, replacing a lot of.
I hella bought four pizzas: hella modifies the verb to buy, replacing really or totally.
I ran hella quickly to the pizza joint: hella modifies the adverb quickly, replacing very.
Tom LaGatta is hella amazing at math: hella modifies the adjective amazing, replacing extremely.
SI prefix
As of 2010, an online petition, created by Yreka's Austin Sendek, seeks to establish "hella-" as the SI prefix for 1027. The prefix, which has since appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Daily Telegraph, and Wired, was implemented by Google in May 2010. On May 31, 2011, Wolfram Alpha also implemented "hella-" as a supported prefix.