You ever notice how universal the word hell is?
"She's fine as hell!"
"He's ugly as hell."
"This is as hard as hell."
"It's cold as hell!"
"It's hot as hell."
"Cool as hell."
"What the hell?"
So wait, what is the hell? Well aperantly it's a place that looks really good yet ugly but it's hard and cold yet it's hot but ultimately it's cool. Or just from my examples from what I have heard people say.
If hell is pictured as always being on fire can you really say "It's cold as hell."?
The only one that should make sense is "It's hot as hell." according to the description.
Hell seems to be a word that is just randomly used.
Here are the same examples but I'll swap out hell with words that will make as much sense.
"She's fine as banana!"
"He's ugly as Cincinnati."
"This is as hard as pudding."
"It's cold as Arizona!"
"It's hot as balloon."
"Cool as wok."
"What the telephone?"
Ofcourse it's not like I'm saying if you use hell you should swap it out with one of my words up here, I'm just wondering what the hell is.
T-G
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Most of them are just simple emphatic statements made in simile form. Figurative allusion has long been a part of communicating in English.
ReplyDeleteThe word "hell" was a no-no word when phrases like this started occuring. The more acceptable "hell" becomes, the more these phrases will change.
"It hurt like balls!"
"It was cold as nutsuck!"
They make no literal sense. That is not their purpose. To say "It was cold", communicates the same idea, but not in the same way. When we talk, we try to stay interesting, so that our listeners will remain listeners and not just people present.
Shock is an easy and effective short-term way to be interesting. Throw a word in where it doesn't belong, maybe unbalance your listeners to snap their attention back to you. It is like when you are driving on the highway, you zone out, drift and hit those divots on the side of the road that make that loud noise to wake you up.
Eventually, phrases like "What the Balls?" and "This is some tasty shit" become commonplace. They have lost their shock value, but we use them out of habit.
Not far off is the day where you will hear "What the fuck!" on television.