"Hellacious" - Is The Word Used In England?

Hello,

my answer might not be sufficiently objective since I'm not a native English speaker. But I have spent some time in the UK and have many friends from the country. I have never heard a British person utter this word. I have always thought that this was a typical US slang word.

Is this word in connection with the word 'hell'? Or is the similar form just a coincidence? (Well, I'm almost totally sure that this word is rooted in 'hell', and my supposition is based on the meaning of the word (i.e. hell is connected to bad things).

No, Brennus, we don't use it.

I myself thought this word was from that booblycious phase or how you spell it.

BOOTY-licious. Other end of the body, Guest.

No, hellacious is an old word -- like having a hell of a time. According to the Maven's Word of the Day:

"Hellacious is an alteration of the standard hellish, which dates to the early sixteenth century, by association with hell of a and other similar expressions with hell. The suffix -acious is used with insensive or augmentative force and is probably extracted from audacious and/or vivacious; it is also found in the (originally Southern) slang word bodacious.

Hellacious is first recorded in print in the late 1920s, though it is likely to be older. The evidence shows that it was originally found especially in the South and West, though now its distribution is more broad."


California slang has (or had when I was there) a short version of it -- hella. As in "That was hella sketchy, dude." Don't know if they still use it.

I've heard of hellish but not hellacious.

"As in "That was hella sketchy, dude." Don't know if they still use it. "

Yep, we do

"Hella" is only used in some parts of California. In Southern California, "hella" is not normally said.

I like to use made up words ending in "-cious".

Examples:

Ghettolicious - My trashy car is quite ghettolicious.

Bootylicious - Shakira dances bootyliciously.