sockdologer

/ sɒkˈdɒlədʒə /

noun

1. a decisive blow or remark

2. an outstanding person or thing

Word History and Origins

Origin of sockdologer¹

C19: of uncertain origin; perhaps from _sock ² + _doxology (in the sense: the closing act of a church service) + _-er ¹

Example Sentences

The playwright seems to have invented a neologism derived from American slang of the time: A “sockdologer” meant a truth delivered as a defining moment in a situation, an intellectual coup de grace.

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But his “Ring Tailed Doodle Sockdologer” and his “Famous Michigan Mermaid. Half Elephant and Half Sturgeon” were singular beings, and collectible for that reason alone.

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The answer was a sockdologer, and the representative of their lordships, after this brief exposition of sea law, made no more interruptions.”

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Wen he talks Union to me, an all the time means despotism, I allus feel jest like haulin up my old hickory, an givin him a sockdologer.

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"That must've bin a sockdologer of a dose the Surgeon gave me," he muttered to himself.

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