Saturday, January 8, 2011

Word of the Day...

So I love words - my dictionary is one of my favorite books... and I get a "word of the day" every day sent to my inbox. **Keep learning, kids. It's good for you.** Today's word is particularly curious. In fact, I'd never heard of it before.
Ahem: [Courtesy dictionary.com]

sockdolager
\sok-DOL-uh-jer\, noun:
1. A decisive reply, argument.
2. Something unusually large, heavy, etc.
3. A heavy, finishing blow.

Sockdolager is an odd American combination from the 1830s. Its probable components are sock, as in "striking a blow," and doxology, "a fervent hymn to god." Sockdolager is also possibly the last word Abraham Lincoln heard before he was assassinated.

The good people at dictionary(dot)com provide the following example from literature:
"WHACK! - bum! bum! bumble-umble-um-bum-bum-bum-bum - and the thunder would go rumbling and grumbling away, and quit - and then RIP comes another flash and another sockdolager."
-- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

...but all I can think is "Homey Don't Play That".

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