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For the uninitiated, hella is flexible as a quantifier and intensifier. Hella has hella meanings for hella words. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hella https://e

For the uninitiated, hella is flexible as a quantifier and intensifier. Hella has hella meanings for hella words. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hella https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hella Honestly, being from the Bay Area, I'm against pegging hella to a specific size. It feels more appropriate for cases where you don't know how many, but 'a lot' feels insufficient.

Lammy 6y ago
I always said "hell of" instead of hella if I wanted to be cool like Ray Smuckles http://achewood.com/index.php?date=11242004 http://achewood.com/index.php?date=11242004
- jdminhbg 6y ago
  If you are with a lady and have Taken a DVD, you can tone it down with “heck of.” http://achewood.com/index.php?date=06212004 http://achewood.com/index.php?date=06212004
6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago
Would you say hella has a ton of different meanings? "Ton" seems to do fine with precise and imprecise meanings.
- edoceo 6y ago
  Too heavy man.
npunt 6y ago
Agree. If we're to peg Hella to anything, it should be as an intensifier to the one's expectations. E.g. 'there's hella people here' would indicate there are say ~5x the number of people that the listener expects there to be in a given place and time.
caturopath 6y ago
IME, the hella intensifier ("That run was hella dangerous") is really widespread, but the quantifier ("There were hella trees") is really a northern California thing.
chaboud 6y ago
If I'm still alive when someone says "hecka hellabytes", I'll shed a single wistful tear, for humanity will have run its course...
- awalton 6y ago
  'Hecka-' sounds like the giggle-unit version of the 'Hella-'. So let's propose a heckabyte is 1024 yobibytes.
vmception 6y ago
It just adds an additional context. A "minute" simultaneously means 60 seconds which is brief, and in casual conversation it means an indefinitely indeterminate long period of time. We can distinguish perfectly fine.
m463 6y ago
> "hella is flexible as a quantifier and intensifier" This is too funny. It is such a concise and accurate description of such an informal word that you wonder if the describer could ever use it in conversation. I am not making fun of you! A similar example is the description of "Working in the Coal Mine" in Wikipedia: "Written, arranged and produced by Toussaint, the song concerns the suffering of a man who rises before 5 o'clock each morning in order to work in a coal mine, five days a week, where the conditions are very harsh and dangerous, but which offers the only prospect of paid employment. The singer repeatedly asks the Lord, "How long can this go on?" and complains that when the weekend arrives, he's too exhausted to have any fun. In the instrumental section, as in the song's fade, he says: "Lord, I'm so tired / How long can this go on?"

Lammy 6y ago

I always said "hell of" instead of hella if I wanted to be cool like Ray Smuckles http://achewood.com/index.php?date=11242004 http://achewood.com/index.php?date=11242004

jdminhbg 6y ago
If you are with a lady and have Taken a DVD, you can tone it down with “heck of.” http://achewood.com/index.php?date=06212004 http://achewood.com/index.php?date=06212004

6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago

Would you say hella has a ton of different meanings? "Ton" seems to do fine with precise and imprecise meanings.

edoceo 6y ago
Too heavy man.

npunt 6y ago

Agree. If we're to peg Hella to anything, it should be as an intensifier to the one's expectations. E.g. 'there's hella people here' would indicate there are say ~5x the number of people that the listener expects there to be in a given place and time.

caturopath 6y ago

IME, the hella intensifier ("That run was hella dangerous") is really widespread, but the quantifier ("There were hella trees") is really a northern California thing.

chaboud 6y ago

If I'm still alive when someone says "hecka hellabytes", I'll shed a single wistful tear, for humanity will have run its course...

awalton 6y ago
'Hecka-' sounds like the giggle-unit version of the 'Hella-'. So let's propose a heckabyte is 1024 yobibytes.

vmception 6y ago

It just adds an additional context. A "minute" simultaneously means 60 seconds which is brief, and in casual conversation it means an indefinitely indeterminate long period of time. We can distinguish perfectly fine.

m463 6y ago

> "hella is flexible as a quantifier and intensifier" This is too funny. It is such a concise and accurate description of such an informal word that you wonder if the describer could ever use it in conversation. I am not making fun of you! A similar example is the description of "Working in the Coal Mine" in Wikipedia: "Written, arranged and produced by Toussaint, the song concerns the suffering of a man who rises before 5 o'clock each morning in order to work in a coal mine, five days a week, where the conditions are very harsh and dangerous, but which offers the only prospect of paid employment. The singer repeatedly asks the Lord, "How long can this go on?" and complains that when the weekend arrives, he's too exhausted to have any fun. In the instrumental section, as in the song's fade, he says: "Lord, I'm so tired / How long can this go on?"