The Origins of 'Hella'

Hella. I hella use this word. This article explains its origins.

“Hella emerged somewhere in Northern California around the late 1970s, and although it spread to other places, it’s still associated with this region,” says Nunberg.

I grew up in the Bay Area in the 80s and early 90s and everyone said ‘hella’ all the time. I thought everyone did. I moved to Colorado in the 8th grade and no one did. Kids were like ‘hella? what are you talking about?’

This goes both ways though. In Colorado folks called soda ‘pop’ which I thought was weird, and I had never before heard someone pronounce ‘wash’ as ‘warsh.’

Hella weird.