I grew up in Maine and the word wicked seemed to be about as common as “like” in a valley girl these days. In most of the country, when someone uses “evil” in a sentence, it probably means something related to the dictionary definition.

In Maine, “wicked” replaces less colorful adjectives and adverbs like very, extremely, and really.

Bad is most commonly associated with good, which makes something “good.” I have eaten very good apple pie with vanilla ice cream, seen very good movies and read very good books. I would have called schindler’s list a wicked good movie. Right now I’m reading matterhorn, by Karl Malantes, and so far it’s very good but not quite evil. Here in Washington I never use the term, but as soon as I get back to Maine it starts to be part of my vocabulary again. “Wicked bad” for some reason is much less commonly used as a colloquialism. I suspect this is because this could lead to more confusion, since evil and bad guys look almost the same. Even in Maine we try to avoid double negatives.

The pronunciation of the word evil is key to not being seen as a wannabe maniac. The stress should be on the first syllable, and an almost imperceptible pause is usually used before the second syllable for emphasis. It sounds like “Wick’-id.” This is especially important in describing things dear to the heart of a true maniac. A trout that puts up a good wicked fight before catching it needs good emphasis on the syllable of the wick. A good wicked pass from the high school quarterback to get a key first down against the archrival’s school should be done slowly for emphasis.

It’s hard to spend a day in my hometown without hearing this very common way of speaking used many times. If I hear someone at home say that something was very good, or especially good, it would seem strange to me.

I enjoy going home every summer for many reasons, but one of the biggest is the great lobster feed we share at camp. It’s a pity that visits go by so quickly.