http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/boston-english Global English and language change Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:05:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/boston-english/comment-page-1#comment-3625 Vicki Hollett Thu, 08 Jul 2010 05:33:20 +0000 http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/?p=5742#comment-3625 I loved this post, Karen! Thank you! That Boston meaning of 'wicked' was taken up in the UK too, where it has been used (and I don't know how dated it might be now) to mean terrific, delightful, and a whole host of other positive things. But I came a cropper using it in that sense in Philadelphia a while ago. I described the deceased at a funeral as having a ‘wicked sense of humour’. I meant he had a wonderful gentle sense of fun. The guy officiating during the ceremony repeated it back to the congregation as: ‘And although he had a sarcastic [ meaning unkind] sense of humour, he was dearly loved.’ Everyone thought it was an odd thing to say, and it took me a while to figure out that it was all my fault! If only I'd been in Boston, eh? I loved this post, Karen! Thank you!
That Boston meaning of ‘wicked’ was taken up in the UK too, where it has been used (and I don’t know how dated it might be now) to mean terrific, delightful, and a whole host of other positive things. But I came a cropper using it in that sense in Philadelphia a while ago.
I described the deceased at a funeral as having a ‘wicked sense of humour’. I meant he had a wonderful gentle sense of fun. The guy officiating during the ceremony repeated it back to the congregation as: ‘And although he had a sarcastic [ meaning unkind] sense of humour, he was dearly loved.’ Everyone thought it was an odd thing to say, and it took me a while to figure out that it was all my fault! If only I’d been in Boston, eh?

]]> http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/boston-english/comment-page-1#comment-3616 AllaSobirova Wed, 07 Jul 2010 08:13:10 +0000 http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/?p=5742#comment-3616 That's good to know! My students would love that! That’s good to know! My students would love that!

]]> http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/boston-english/comment-page-1#comment-3566 Tweets that mention Wicked! The flavours of Boston English | Macmillan -- Topsy.com Sat, 03 Jul 2010 08:40:15 +0000 http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/?p=5742#comment-3566 [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Boston News 360. Boston News 360 said: Wicked! The flavours of Boston English | Macmillan http://bit.ly/b9iK2T [...] [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Boston News 360. Boston News 360 said: Wicked! The flavours of Boston English | Macmillan http://bit.ly/b9iK2T [...]

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