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.

From Washington Post

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.

From New York Times

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

From Scientific American

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.

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg