different between wicked vs perfidious

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English wicked, wikked, an alteration of Middle English wicke, wikke (“morally perverse, evil, wicked”). Possibly from an adjectival use of Old English wi??a (“wizard, sorcerer”), from Proto-Germanic *wikkô (“necromancer, sorcerer”), though the phonology makes this theory difficult to explain.

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?k??d, IPA^(key): /?w?k?d/

Adjective

wicked (comparative wickeder or more wicked, superlative wickedest or most wicked)

1. Evil or mischievous by nature.

   Synonyms: evil, immoral, malevolent, malicious, nefarious, twisted, villainous; see also Thesaurus:evil

2. (slang) Excellent; awesome; masterful.

   Synonyms: awesome, bad, cool, dope, excellent, far out, groovy, hot, rad; see also Thesaurus:excellent

Usage notes

Use of "wicked" as an adjective rather than an adverb is considered an error in the Boston dialect. However, that is not necessarily the case in other New England dialects.

Derived terms

• wickedly
• wickedness
• wicked tongue

Translations

Adverb

wicked (not comparable)

1. (slang, New England, Britain) Very, extremely.

   Synonyms: hella, helluv (both Californian/regional, and both potentially considered mildly vulgar)

Translations

Etymology 2

See wick.

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?kt, IPA^(key): /w?kt/

Verb

wicked

1. simple past tense and past participle of wick

Adjective

wicked (not comparable)

1. Having a wick.

Derived terms

• multiwicked

Etymology 3

See wick.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w?k?d/

Adjective

wicked

1. (Britain, dialect, obsolete) Active; brisk.
2. (Britain, dialect, chiefly Yorkshire) Infested with maggots.
3. Alternative form of wick, as applying to inanimate objects only.

References

Middle English

Adjective

wicked

1. Alternative form of wikked

English

Etymology

From Latin perfidi?sus (“treacherous”), from perfidia.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /p??f?di.?s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p??f?di.?s/

Adjective

perfidious (comparative more perfidious, superlative most perfidious)

1. Of, pertaining to, or representing perfidy; disloyal to what should command one's fidelity or allegiance. [from late 16th c.]
   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 2

     TRINCULO (speaking about Caliban): By this light, a most perfidious and drunken / monster: when his god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle.

   • 1851, Oliver Goldsmith, Dr. Goldsmith's History of Rome (ed. William C. Taylor), ch. 26:

     The perfidious Ricimer soon became dissatisfied with Anthe'mius, and raised the standard of revolt.

   • 1905, Andrew Lang, John Knox and the Reformation, ch. 14:

     [S]he knew Huntly for the ambitious traitor he was, a man peculiarly perfidious and self-seeking.

   • 2005 June 21, Robert Hughes, "Art: The Velocipede of Modernism," Time:

     When the Nazis branded Feininger a "degenerate artist" in 1937, he left 54 paintings for safekeeping with a Bauhaus friend named Hermann Klumpp. After the war, and for the rest of Feininger's life, the perfidious Klumpp refused to give them back.

Synonyms

• (disloyal): disloyal, traitorous, treacherous, unfaithful

Derived terms

• perfidiously
• perfidiousness
• unperfidious

Related terms

• perfidy

Translations

Further reading

• Perfidious Albion on Wikipedia.Wikipedia