sockdologizing

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Ambiguous term of abuse; scheming.

Word forms

sockdologizing

Etymology

Nonce word, from sockdolager + -ize + -ing. Coined 1858 by Tom Taylor for the play Our American Cousin. Taylor presumably learned sockdolager from Dictionary of Americanisms (1848) by John Russell Bartlett and used it to evoke Americanness in his play’s title character.

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