humdinger hum·ding·er [huhm-ding-er]
noun Informal
a person, thing, action, or statement of remarkable excellence or effect
This is a word that's pretty much fallen out of disuse in my lifetime. I remember it being used to describe all sorts of things: "This is one humdinger of a party/game/car/etc." After seeing it in this blog's Word of the Day module, I decided to Google it and see if it had any other modern definitions.
Oh boy, has it. I won't link to the most obscene ones, but what was most insulting was the word being described as being "used only by dumb yokels and rednecks". Oh well, I won't rant about how stupid people are for saying things like that. I remember using "humdinger" to describe something, but I am also prone to say "Gee whiz." or "Aw, shucks." I guess that probably makes ME a yokel and redneck. That's OK, I could probably spot that person a dozen IQ points and still beat them by that many or more.
Looking up other definitions, I saw where Humdinger IS still being used! I'd like to try that beer, sounds like it would taste great to a redneck like me.
No comments:
Post a Comment