# Word origin

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/109942>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 20, 2002, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/109942 "2002-05-20T14:15:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![insider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@insider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/insider)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2002, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/109942/1 "2002-05-20T14:15:10Z")

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What is the origin of the word humdinger?

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2002, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/109942/2 "2002-05-20T14:59:32Z")

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The OED marks is at “origin unknown.”

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/109942/3 "2002-05-21T02:27:13Z")

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While LIghter also offers no origin, it didn’t take much looking through Lighter to find that:

_hummer_ to mean “an extraordinary person or thing” was not uncommonly used around the 1890-1910 period. It actually goes back to the 18th century.

[dinger\* to mean “a striking or extraordinary specimen” was first recorded in 1892 and was not uncommon in the years after that.

Not too hard to surmise that **humdinger** which also apears in 1905 is just a form or those words.

It is possible that dinger was a backformation of _humdinger_.

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**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/109942/4 "2002-05-21T03:05:26Z")

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[ul]🆒 [sup]Oral sex?[/sup][/ul]

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**Author:** ![SavageNarce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@SavageNarce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SavageNarce)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2002, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/word-origin/109942/5 "2002-05-21T12:27:22Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by kniz \*  
> \*\*[ul]🆒 [sup]Oral sex?[/sup][/ul] \*\*

Yes, Please!  
😃