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Comparitively well received
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1
2011/09/20 - 11:04am

I was just reading an online article that mentions a software feature as being the “… most well received … ” At this, my mind edited it to “ … best received …” But a Google search shows “most well received” at 9,650,000 results, with “best received” at a paltry 235,000 results. The comparative forms “more well received” (3,260,000) and “better received” (350,000) show only a 10 to 1 preference.

If you subscribe to the theory that most of the writing on the internet is crap — and I suspect you do — then you can be reassured that a search of Google books shows a preference for the traditional comparative and superlative forms.

Google books has the following results:
“better received” = 32,800
“best received” = 14,500
“more well received” = 379
“most well received” = 1160

But don't backfill your bomb shelter yet: linguistic Armageddon may be just around the corner.

Google books for publications since January 1, 2005:
“better received” = 3,740
“best received” = 1,490
“more well received” = 108
“most well received” = 297

While the traditional forms are still in the lead, these numbers show a statistically significant shift toward the nontraditional “more well received” and “most well received.” Why can't books be more well written?

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2
2011/09/26 - 2:00pm

Add well known to the list.

I am reading a novel, and I just came upon "most well known." Also, I would be inclined to make an exception for the phrase "well done" in the sense of a cooking temperature -- "This steak is more well done than the other" -- but I would prefer to leave the "well" out as in "This steak is more done than the other." I would not make an exception for "well done" in the sense of a job or task: "Her wrapping is is better done than his."

Other possibilities include:
well adjusted
well appointed
well balanced
well behaved
well bred
well built
well chosen
well connected
well defined
well formed
well founded
well groomed
well hung !?
well informed
well intentioned
well kept
well liked
well made
well manicured
well mannered
well nourished
well ordered ?
well proportioned
well put
well qualified
well read
well rounded
well situated
well spent
well spoken
well stacked !
well thought of
well thought out
well timed
well versed

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3
2011/09/26 - 8:13pm

It seems to me that at the point that a phrase "well + another word" becomes an idiom, it deserves to be modified with more or most. The problem, as I look through your list, is picking out the idioms. They may not all be so well defined. I think the ones you put a question mark by are definitely idioms. Also, I would include "well versed" and "well spoken" as idioms. Others - maybe or maybe not.

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4
2011/09/27 - 5:14am

Thanks, Dick.

After giving it some more thought, I think that most of the examples fall into one of two categories. One set of "well x" -- the ones in which well indicates "with quality, skillfully" -- should become "better x" and "best x." A second set of "well x" -- the ones in which well means "thoroughly, completely, to a great extent or degree" -- should become "more x" and "most x" Examples of each would be
well spent, better spent, best spent
well ordered, more ordered, most ordered

"Well done" can fall in either camp:
well done (steak), more done (steak), most done (steak)
well done (performance), better done (performance), best done (performance)

"Well hung" in the idiomatic sense, as you point out, seems to defy comparison. Perhaps in this case there is no point in comparison! A Google search will result in a few of each comparative form. If I had to pick one paradigm, I'd go with better, best.

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5
2011/10/01 - 8:18pm

Maybe this was part of the point of your last post, Glenn, but I think once "well-x" becomes idiom it makes more sense to preserve the idiom and write "more well-x" or "most well-x". For example, a "well-balanced diet" is well known, and that would make a statement that one person has a "more well-balanced diet" better accessible than the statement that the person has a "better-balanced diet."

Also, as a former teacher of English as a second language, I've found that those speakers of English find the usage of more or most in the comparative and superlative, respectively, much more accessible than the varying usages of words that add "-er" or "-est" in the comparative and superlative, again, respectively. It may be a shortcut, but it's much easier to think of a happier person as "more happy" and just forget the rules governing the suffices.

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