# Okay, 'sick' is a good thing now? An etymology(ish) question. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 2, 2001, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280 "2001-06-02T01:02:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/1 "2001-06-02T01:02:37Z")
At the age of 22, I’m losing track of new slang? Man, I’ve got to get out more. So tell me, when did ‘sick’ become slang for something good and what, exactly, is it supposed to mean? (My best guess is that it’s a higher degree of ‘cool.’) ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/2 "2001-06-02T01:38:34Z")
I heard it the past couple years or so, as snowboarder slang. (“Man, that park has some totally sick hits in it!”) Yeah, it’s appoximately the same as cool, or sweet, or wicked, AFAICT, though maybe a little more superlative. ---
**Author:** ![Raziel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4bbf92/32.png) [@Raziel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raziel)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/3 "2001-06-02T01:40:39Z")
Yeah, and AFAIK, it’s usually applied to X-treme sporting type stuff. F’rinstance, a snowboarder does a 1440 off a jump. My response? “Ahhh, that’s _sick_.” I only use it when the degree of coolness is such that I have to wrinkle my face and nose. Like, I see a basketball player dunk. “That was cool.” OTOH, I see a bball player dunk, after taking the ball behind his back, under his legs, and doing a 360? “Ahhhh, that’s _sick_.” ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/4 "2001-06-02T02:02:47Z")
KKBattousai, don’t feel too bad. I had to ask my teenage brother what kids his age meant by “tight” recently. Why would they dig up slang from days of yore? Tight was a 70’s thing, wasn’t it? Darn kids 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/5 "2001-06-02T02:21:11Z")
My friends and I used ‘sick’ this way back when I was a senior in high school (1988), mainly in weightlifting class. “Man, that lift was sick!” “damn, your arms are ripped! You look sick!” I was sick before it was cool to be sick. hahahahaha It was pretty cool how people would look at us and not know what we were talking about. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Raziel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4bbf92/32.png) [@Raziel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raziel)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/6 "2001-06-02T02:24:28Z")
Makes you wonder what slang is going to be used in place of “cool” in the future. 1. Stuff like The Fifth Element. “Green?” “Supergreen” 2. More retro. “This game is frickin _keen_.” “Yeah, it’s definitely swell.” 3. New words that haven’t even been invented yet. “You see that new movie? It was the jouke!” ---
**Author:** ![orr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e47c2d/32.png) [@orr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orr)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/7 "2001-06-02T02:36:37Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Raziel:_ > Makes you wonder what slang is going to be used in place of “cool” in the future. As long as my (future) children don’t go around saying things are “l33t”, then I’ll be happy.😛 I’m 24 now and it seems like certain slang words/terms never really died out around here. As far as I can remember, people have always said “Right on” and “Dig”. Then again my parents were hippies, so take that for what it’s worth. orr ~waiting for “solid” to become popular again~ ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/8 "2001-06-02T02:40:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Raziel \* > > 1. More retro. “This game is frickin _keen_.” “Yeah, it’s definitely swell.” I ALWAYS use the word keen. I’m also trying very hard to bring back the term Hot Dog! as an expression of joy… its not going so well. jarbaby ---
**Author:** ![Raziel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4bbf92/32.png) [@Raziel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raziel)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/9 "2001-06-02T02:50:51Z")
I’ve been on a similar crusade to bring back the high-five. Next time you want to congratulate someone, forget all this fancy-schmancy handshake business, and give them a good old fashioned high-five. I’m tellin ya, we can do this. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/10 "2001-06-02T02:51:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Raziel \* > I’m tellin ya, we can do this. HOT DOG! ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/11 "2001-06-02T03:09:56Z")
I decided a few years ago to have official slang words for my class. Whenever the class gets overly excited (these are 10 and 11 year olds, so this happens a lot), they are “twitterpated”. If you are surprised or upset the correct thing to say is “great googily moogily”. Being excited and eager requires one to do a fist pump accompanied by a Homer-esque “woo-hoo”, preferably in falsetto. Ah, teaching nonsense words. What better use of instructional time could there be? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/12 "2001-06-02T03:50:44Z")
I would have thought most 10 and 11 year olds are too young to get “twitterpated”. Or don’t you remember how the word was used in “Bambi”? ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/13 "2001-06-02T03:52:51Z")
Neato keen! ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/14 "2001-06-02T05:45:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lemur866 \* > \*\*I would have thought most 10 and 11 year olds are too young to get “twitterpated”. Or don’t you remember how the word was used in “Bambi”? \*\* Haven’t spent much time around 10 and 11 year olds lately, have you? Try explaining a ball-and-socket joint to a group of 5th graders without them erupting into embarassed giggles. Or the tenses of the verbs lie and lay. Or what a hoe-down is (don’t get this one, but it got quite a reaction from the class). But I think it applies perfectly. As I understand it, it means being attracted to someone for the first time and not quite understanding how to deal with the emotion, but nonetheless being exited and a little scared at the same time. This perfectly describes a lot of kids this age. But I use the term a little more loosely, to describe a general feeling of exitement at the prospect of something new, which happens to 10 and 11 year olds a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Montfort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Montfort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montfort)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/15 "2001-06-02T06:06:22Z")
Groovy 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Astroglide](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6de8d8/32.png) [@Astroglide](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroglide)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/16 "2001-06-02T06:21:03Z")
“Sick” is also very popular is heavy music circles, helped along by Disturbed’s catchphrase “Down with the sickness” and Slipknot’s song “(sic)”. Here someone who does something exceptionally well is “on point”. Comes from the Marines. I like the phrase. ---
**Author:** ![Amedeus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Amedeus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amedeus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/17 "2001-06-02T06:25:18Z")
Gee Willy, thats a perty dandy OP u’s got there. ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/18 "2001-06-02T07:08:32Z")
Spoon! Heh. ::returns to trying to figure out the rise and fall of ‘radical’:: ---
**Author:** ![Tzel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzel)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2001, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/19 "2001-06-02T12:21:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by orr \* > \*\*orr ~waiting for “solid” to become popular again~ > > \*\* I say solid, and sick. ---
**Author:** ![gwar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@gwar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gwar)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2001, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280/20 "2001-06-04T18:31:59Z")
I first heard the word “sick” being used as slang on the 1987 skateboarding video put out by Powell and Peralta entitled “The Search for Animal Chin.” A skater did some cool trick or whatever, and a hardcore skateboarder onlooker said, “that’s sick”. We thought it was hilarious, and I have heard it used ever since, though mainly among skaters/surfers/snowboarders/druggies and the like. It is my observation that the word not so much means “cool”, but carries a connotation more extreme than just that. It is used to describe something that is unbelievable, unprecedented, or just plain mind-blowing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-sick-is-a-good-thing-now-an-etymology-ish-question/67280.md?page=2)