Anthony’s review of The Girl of Drovers's Hill > Likes and Comments

" humdinger "
Thanks for reminding me, Tony! An oldie, but a goodie, but a word not likely to resurface any time soon, I reckon :))

Belatedly, thanks Anthony for reading Drovers's Hill. I await anxiously for your review but assure you it will be received with the greatest respect from you.
Regards

Terence M - [Quot libros, quam breve tempus!] wrote: "
" humdinger "

Thanks for reminding me, Tony! An oldie, but a goodie, but a word not likely to resurface any time soon, I reckon :))"

Doesn't make my Oxford, Terence. But my Universal says it is someone or something extraordinary or marvellous. Superior.
Quite a reputation Anthony has given me to live up to.

P.K. wrote: "Terence M - [Quot libros, quam breve tempus!] wrote: "humdinger" - Doesn't make my Oxford, Terence. But my Universal says it is someone or something extraordinary or marvellous. Superior.
Quite a reputation Anthony has given me to live up to.'..."

If my rapidly ageing memory serves me, "humdinger" was a fairly common word back when I was a lad. For me, it most likely surfaced first when I was watching cartoons at our local cinemas in the 40s and 50s, so I would think it is probably of US origin. It certainly doesn't 'sound' like a British word to me!

Terence M - [Quot libros, quam breve tempus!] wrote: "P.K. wrote: "Terence M - [Quot libros, quam breve tempus!] wrote: "humdinger" - Doesn't make my Oxford, Terence. But my Universal says it is someone or something extraordinary or marvellous. Superi..."

Oddly for an Australian family of Irish/Anglo background, we had a huge Webster's American dictionary in our bookshelf.
I still use a Webster's but a much smaller edition (Webster's New World College Dictionary).
Terry, I think you are right as to "humdinger" being an American word.
Webster described it as "fanciful coinage" slang - a person or thing considered excellent or otherwise remarkable of its kind.
My father mainly read American novels, and his favorites were the works of Steinbeck, John O'Hara, and James Jones.
As a younger man he used to read cowboy books. He loved Westerns. Sounds like a word Owen Wister would have used in "The Virginian." I wonder?

Anthony wrote: "Terence M - [Quot libros, quam breve tempus!] wrote: Oddly for an Australian family of Irish/Anglo background, we had a huge Webster's American dictionary in our bookshelf.
I still use a Webster's but a much smaller edition (Webster's New World College Dictionary)...."

I remember that massive Webster's Dictionary, Tony, with the alphabet letters cut into its leading edge! There was one in the main library of the seminary I attended in the early 50s (I was twelve yo!), but all the "fun" words and their meanings were pasted over with white cardboard :)) Our teachers were missionary priests determined to preserve our precious "priests-to-be" purity of mind and body - huh, fat chance! Unlike modern dictionaries, the really "fun" words probably were not in the Webster's in those days anyway!

I'm sure you are both right. I only associate the word with, probably, early American movies from the late forties. I also seem to remember President Truman using it in a speech: perhaps when he obliterated Nagasaki. Anyway, it's a great epithet to hang on Drovers's Hill..

Terence M - [Quot libros, quam breve tempus!] wrote: "Anthony wrote: "Terence M - [Quot libros, quam breve tempus!] wrote: Oddly for an Australian family of Irish/Anglo background, we had a huge Webster's American dictionary in our bookshelf.
I still ..."

Sounds exactly like the one we had -without those paste overs!
They must have been going cheap post-war, perhaps the Americans trying to conquer the Aussie psyche! As if they hadn't already with the movies!

We also had a lot of large pictorial books depicting the war years seen through, as far as I remember, American eyes. We also had all those Douglas Reed books. I think he was a British war correspondent who wrote books about the oncoming war and the war itself. I remember reading one (in another century) and it was very interesting as they were being written as the tumultuous events were happening. I also remember they had a musty smell and a lot of foxing as they were printed on cheap war rationed paper.
I'll have to check if my sister still has them.

P.K. wrote: "I'm sure you are both right. I only associate the word with, probably, early American movies from the late forties. I also seem to remember President Truman using it in a speech: perhaps when he ob..."

Sounds like a term a mid-western haberdasher would use.
Much prefer my usage to compliment you on a fine novel than it being used to describe nuclear destruction.

Hopefully I'll get to finish my review soon, P.K. And to encourage readers to discover what a damn good book you have penned!

Thanks Anthony. Your usage is more than adequate for any challenge. Don't worry about a time-frame; it took quite a while to write the damn thing so I can wait another year or two. I'm sorry you don't indulge the e-books: I am going to make a double freebie whammy with my first book, Getting Tyson. Your great co-moviemonger, Aditya has just reviewed it on Goodreads so I'll see if the two great film goers of these pages can generate some attention for me.

BTW. Websters was just a tool to try to rewrite English - without the etymology. Why would you need that?