Though is use seems to be waning, does anybody know how long the (idiotic, in my opinion) teenage slang term “hella” has been around? I personally started hearing in the mid-1990s, (1996 would be my best guess) but several recent conversations on the subject have demanded that I gather more information.
Hella yours,
Colin
My OED doesn’t show any cites of that usage. So I’d guess it’s fairly new.
It shows up on Usenet around 1989 or so. Here it is as “hella pain in the ass”. Link:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=hella&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&as_drrb=b&as_mind=12&as_minm=5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=14&as_maxm=11&as_maxy=1989&selm=1513%40atanasoff.cs.iastate.edu&rnum=7
There is a usenet usage from 1986, but it looks to me like it could be a typo. Link:
http://groups.google.com/groups?q=hella&start=10&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&as_drrb=b&as_mind=12&as_minm=5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=14&as_maxm=11&as_maxy=1988&selm=12248291398.66.SHULMAN%40RED.RUTGERS.EDU&rnum=14
So it was in some use by 1989.
I was hella annoyed by its usage by a bunch of White Gangasta Ho Wannabes in October 1991.
It was hecka common in Northern California (anecdotally this appears to be its region of origin) in the mid-80’s and later by my recollection. Possibly it was in use earlier, when I was still too young to use it.
as a northern californian, I’ll be happy when this word is dead and buried.
and…ummm…hella
It’s hella fully sick, mad, and hardcore amongst the Lebanese teenagers in Sydney. Has been for a few years, bro!
I picked it up from Cartman on South Park around 1997 or 1998, I think.
It was in use in Northern California as early as 1976.
It was very common in Southern California in the early 80’s.
Haj
Never heard it till now. Not on the street. Not on TV. Not in the papers. Hope it dies before it gets to Chicago.
It was used in Northern California but not Southern California in 1998 – the first time I heard it was from people I graduated from high school with who were going to UC Santa Cruz.
I moved to San Francisco in 1986 and it was very common then. Friends who had moved up from L.A. told me it was not used there (although it was known as “Northern California slang”).
I need to back up hajario. Me and the boys were using this in Isla Vista (next to UCSB) back around 1981.
It’s apparently quite old, but it gained a lot of popularity once featured on south park ironically as something that was annoying.
In 1966, when I was shopping the ads in Car & Driver for brighter-than-standard headlights, there were two brands. You could get Lucas or Hella. The ads didn’t use the name as an adverb, but I suppose they were Hella bright. 
Nah, some dude in Germany named his company that in 1908. I had a pair of Hella’s on a Ford Courier pickup I owned many years ago.
Except that I heard it at UCSD at the same time! It looks like we switched places. It was the rocker/heavy metal dudes that used the phrase. I believe that it was Wayne’s World that really popularized it over a decade before South Park.
Haj
What does it mean? Is it a contraction of “hell of a” or “helluva”?
I’m having trouble remembering it in a WW skit or in either movie - do you remember where they said it?
I didn’t see the second movie and only saw parts of the first one. I’m thinking it was the skits. I worked at the campus radio station and definitely first heard it from the guy who did the Heavy Metal show and we used to mock him with WW type talk so I could easily be confusing the two. Given what was going on in my life at the time (hint: I did the reggae show and attended Grateful Dead concerts) my memory just may be a bit faulty.
Haj