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From Middle Englishbad, badde(“wicked, evil, depraved”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps a shortening of Old Englishbæddel(“hermaphrodite”) (for loss of -el compare Middle English muche from Old English myċel, and Middle English wenche from Old English wenċel), or at least related to it and/or to bǣ̆dan(“to defile”), compare Old High Germanpad(“hermaphrodite”).
He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
“[…] if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them togs called a livery. […]”
2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG:
You leave your girl around me; if she's bad she's gonna get stuck.
2020 October 7, @morkitten, Twitter, archived from the original on 3 April 2024:
"don't buy chinese games because china bad!!" folks I have good news about a little country called the United States of America
2020 October 11, u/EarthToAccess, “Sad moment right here”, in Reddit, r/redditmoment, archived from the original on 3 April 2024:
fake reddit moment, he's on tiktok and we all know tiktok bad 😤😤😤
2023 January 24, u/ThunderEagle222, “"NATO doesn't win because it has better technology! They only win because their technology is better!"”, in Reddit, r/NonCredibleDefense, archived from the original on 3 April 2024:
These kind of people only hate the Iraq invasion cuz "USA bad". Not because they truly care about Iraqi's.
2023 March 21, @SpectrVolcarona, Twitter, archived from the original on 3 April 2024:
-now everyone says it was "never good" because "popular thing bad" and now you're not allowed to like it anymore because it is now against the unspoken social rules thats fucking so great I hate that this happens to everything I like
2023 November 28, u/zeptillian, “This super popular disposable vape device is basically just a tampon soaked in nicotine juice that gets zapped by a small battery to produce vapor.”, in Reddit, r/mildlyinteresting, archived from the original on 3 April 2024:
Ok well since it's been a thing for like 1.5 decades now, do you think you could give us a clue? ¶ FDA. Nope. Vape bad. You figure it out yourself.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
1969, Lennon–McCartney (lyrics and music), “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, in Abbey Road, performed by The Beatles:
I want you / I want you so bad, it's driving me mad
Usage notes
When placed after the main verb, use of bad as an intensifier is often more accepted than badly. Compare:
I bad need to eat. I badly need to eat.
I need bad to eat. I need badly to eat.
I need to eat bad. I need to eat badly.
It is also common in certain set expressions, such as bad off, which may be perceived as an extended form of the adjective bad rather than the adverb bad ~ badly modifying the adjective off.
1993, Mitch Albom, Fab five: basketball, trash talk, the American dream:
"My bad, My bad!” Juwan yelled, scowling
2003, Zane, Skyscraper, page 7:
“Chico, you're late again.” I turned around and stared him in his beady eyes. “I missed my bus. My bad, Donald.” “Your bad? Your bad? What kind of English is that?
2008, Camika Spencer, Cubicles, page 68:
Teresa broke out in laughter. “Dang, I sound like I'm talking to my man.” “I tried your cell phone, but you didn't answer.” “I left it at home, Friday. My bad.” “Yeah, your bad.” I laughed. “Really, I'm sorry. It won't happen again.
2011, Henry Thompson, International Economics: Global Markets and Competition, 3rd edition, World Scientific, page 97:
Imports are an economic good but exports an economic bad. Exports must be produced but are enjoyed by foreign consumers.
2011, William J. Boyes, Michael Melvin, Economics, 9th edition, Cengage Learning, page 4:
An economic bad is anything that you would pay to get rid of. It is not so hard to think of examples of bads: pollution, garbage, and disease fit the description.
1876, The Gloucester Journal, Oct. 7, 1876, reported in A. Gregory, “Gloucestershire Dialect,” Notes and Queries, 5th ser., 6, 148 (1876‑10‑28): 346
A curious specimen of Gloucestershire dialect came out in an assault case heard by the Gloucester court magistrates on Saturday. One of the witnesses, speaking of what a girl was doing at the time the assault took place, said she was ‘badding’ walnuts in a pigstye. The word is peculiarly provincial: to ‘bad’ walnuts is to strip away the husk. The walnut, too, is often called a ‘bannut,’ and hence the old Gloucestershire phrase, ‘Come an’ bad the bannuts.’
E. M. Parker, R. J. Hayward (1985) “bad”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN
Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2004) Parlons Afar: Langue et Culture, L'Hammartan, →ISBN, page 35
Afrikaans
Etymology
From Dutchbad, ultimately from Proto-Germanic*baþą. The plural baddens was probably formed by analogy with beddens(“beds”). The expected form would have been *baaie, which is already the plural of baai(“bay”). Compare phonetically pad > paaie.
Potanin, G.N. (1893) “пат”, in Тангутско-Тибетская окраина Китая и Центральная Монголия (in Russian), page 431
Yanchuk, Mikola Andriyovich (1893) “бад”, in Этнографическое ОбозрѢніе: Императорскаго Общества Любителей Естествознанія, Антропологіи и Этнографіи [Ethnographical Review: Imperial Society of Lovers of Natural History, Anthropology and Ethnography] (in Russian), Moscow: Publication of the Ethnographic Department, page 13
Tenishev, Edhem (1976) “bad”, in Stroj salárskovo jazyká [Grammar of Salar], Moscow, page 439
林莲云 [Lin Lianyun] (1985) “bad”, in 撒拉语简志 [A Brief History of Salar], Beijing: 民族出版社: 琴書店, →OCLC, page 121
Yakup, Abdurishid (2002) “bad”, in An Ili Salar Vocabulary: Introduction and a Provisional Salar-English Lexicon, Tokyo: University of Tokyo, →ISBN, page 52
马伟 (Ma Wei), 朝克 (Chao Ke) (2016) “bad”, in 濒危语言——撒拉语研究 [Endangered Languages - Salar Language Studies], 青海 (Qinghai): 国家社会科学基金项目 (National Social Science Foundation Project), page 264
Scottish Gaelic
Etymology
Probably borrowed from Pictish . Compare Bretonbod(“cluster, bunch of grapes, thicket”).