Entry · catalog no. 1005
hella
/ ˈhɛlə /HEH-luh
adverb · Bay Area / Oakland · 1970s
✓ Verified
1.
Very; a lot of. An intensifier that scales to anything — hella good, hella far, hella people.
“It's hella cold by the water tonight.”
Origin & Attribution
East Bay youth speech of the late 1970s, with scholars pointing to Black Oakland as the source before it spread across every demographic in Northern California. A Bay Area signature that never needed the internet's permission.
late 1970s
East Bay youth speech, Oakland
1990s
Spreads across Northern California
2000s
National via Bay Area rap and tech
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
The West
Bay Area / Oakland · 1970s
Spoken by
Black Bay Area youth
$HELLAThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Steady47 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
82/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1979
in the culture
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@bayarea
Oakland, CA
@ladi
Los Angeles, CA
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Geoff Nunberg, Bay Area slang commentary (Fresh Air / UC Berkeley) — radio segment · 2015
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceKQED News, "The Origins of Hella" — article · 2017
submitted
See also