There are tons of negative words that are used as positive slang. We’re looking at a few of the more popular ones in this episode. Andrew and Maura give you their take on sick, mean, and wicked. If you look these words up in the dictionary, you might not find these definitions, but if you’re travelling around Canada or the U.S., you might just hear them being used.

Maura:

And the thing about these kinds of words is that they’re always changing. Every few years there’s like a new one of these that emerges and some of the other words we don’t use anymore and depending where you’re speaking English, different kinds of words are more popular.

Andrew:

Mmhmm. That’s the funny thing about slang. It’s always changing with each new generation.

Maura:

Yeah. When I was thinking about this episode, when I was preparing it, I thought about Michael Jackson. And you know in the 80s, he had that song “Bad”. And that’s really a prime example of this kind of slang.

Andrew:

Exactly. Because “Bad” didn’t really mean bad. It meant good in the context of that song.

Maura:

Yeah. Right. So he was singing about being bad, but he didn’t mean that he was negative or something was really bad. He meant that it was cool and awesome and, yeah, kind of maybe exciting.

Expressions from this episode included in the Learning Materials:

Time flies (by)

A prime example

Sick – a sick guitar player – can be used on its own

To be meaning

Break dancing

To be mean – must be used with the object that is being described as mean

A lift

Where ya going?

Wicked – as in intensifer

Fresh powder

No doubt

To be sold

Podcast/Learning Materials: Culips English Podcast, Photo Culips