Humdinger - Wiktionary

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• 1 English Toggle English subsection
  • 1.1 Etymology
  • 1.2 Pronunciation
  • 1.3 Noun
  • 1.4 Further reading

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English

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Etymology

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US origin, perhaps a blend of hummer (“something that moves fast”) +‎ dinger (“something outstanding”). First attested in a newspaper article in the Daily Enterprise of June 4, 1883, at Livingston, Montana.

Pronunciation

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• (UK) IPA(key): /hʌmˈdɪŋ.ə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA(key): /hʌmˈdɪŋ.ɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪŋə(ɹ)

Noun

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humdinger (plural humdingers)

1. (informal) Something that is particularly outstanding, unusual, or exceptional. Most of the questions were pretty easy, but that last one was a humdinger.
   • 1961, Joseph Heller, Catch-22, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN, page 22:“—immense. I'm a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. I'm a bona fide supraman.” “Superman?” Clevinger cried. “Superman?” “Supraman,” Yossarian corrected.
   • 2011 July 19, Robbie Brown, “Arkansas Town Draws a Line on Clubs”, in New York Times‎[1]:“I’ve seen some humdingers, but never any ordinance like this,” said Mark Hayes, general counsel for the Arkansas Municipal League, an organization for towns and cities.

Further reading

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• “humdinger”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025), “humdinger”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

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