Micah in Council Bluffs, Iowa, reports reading an account of a fistfight between 19th-century newspaper editors in which one was hit with a sockdolager, meaning “a knockout punch” or a “heavy, decisive blow,” and wonders if that’s the source of sock, meaning to “strike hard.” Actually, sockdolager is probably an elaboration of sock. In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bookshop|Amazon), Mark Twain uses sockdolager to denote a clap of thunder. The word sockdolagizing is one of the last words heard by Abraham Lincoln, because it’s part of the play Our American Cousin by Tom Taylor (Bookshop|Amazon), which he was watching when he was assassinated. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““Sockdolager” Packs a Knockout Punch or Heavy, Decisive Blow”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Micah. I’m calling from Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Hi, Micah. Welcome to the show.
I was calling about the word sockdollager.
I was actually reading a book about the history of Omaha in the 1800s, and there were these two newspaper editors that were always poking at each other in their editorials.
And they met on the street one day and got into a fight, and the third paper reported on it saying that one of them had put in a sock dollager on the other one’s jaw.
And I just thought it was a fun word.
And then I started thinking about.
On his jaw.
Yeah, he put in a sock dollager on him.
So I’m assuming it’s a punch.
Yeah, I know things.
Yeah, but yeah, a punch.
Yeah, so then it was such a fun word.
It kind of stuck in my head, and then I wondered if that maybe was where we got our word for sock, like if you were to sock someone, like to punch them, if that maybe was the route for that.
And I thought, I know just the people to call.
Well, gosh, I’m still back on the newspaper editors.
I mean, this was not a verbal fisticuffs.
This was actually punching each other in the middle of the street.
So this is how the online bickering happened before online was possible.
Yeah, yeah. There were trolls even in the newspaper days.
And it’s so slow, they just had to get out on the street and do it in real time.
Wow. Okay, so one of them landed a sockdollager. And you’re right. I mean, a sockdollager is a knockout punch or a heavy blow or just the punch that puts an end to everything. It just stops the fight cold because the person gets knocked out or gets hit hard enough that they give up.
Sock-dollager. And the word sock preceded sock-dollager. Sock-dollager probably comes from the word sock. And it’s this early 19th century Americanism that comes from a time when there was a lot of linguistic exuberance in this country. People were forever making up fun words like sockdollager or absquatulate meaning to leave or something like that.
You don’t hear it much anymore. But Mark Twain used the term sockdollager when he was writing about lightning and thunder in Huck Finn. Then rip comes another flash and another sockdollager. He’s talking about resounding thunder.
And one more cool point about the term Sochdologer is that the adjectival form Sochdologizing is famous.
Do you know why it’s famous?
No.
Sochdologizing is famous for being one of the last words that Abraham Lincoln ever heard.
Yeah, you’ll remember that on April 14th, 1865, he goes to Ford’s Theater to see the play Our American Cousin.
And this is about an awkward guy from rural Vermont who goes to visit his aristocratic cousins in England.
And he outsmarts the posh Mrs. Mount Chessington.
And at one point, Mrs. Mount Chessington makes this snide remark about how this guy from Vermont isn’t used to the good manners of good society.
And he says, don’t know the manners of good society, eh?
Well, I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal, you sock-dologizing old man-trap.
And supposedly that was the line that got the biggest laugh of the play.
And John Wilkes Booth was waiting, listening to in hopes that that would cover the sound of his shot when the audience erupted into laughter.
But the line was you sockdologizing old man trap because she was trying to trap him into marrying her daughter because he’s about to inherit a fortune.
So sockdologizing has this really interesting history.
Oh, my goodness. I can’t wait to start using this in my regular conversation now.
Yeah, I think it deserves to be revived.
Sockdolager.
You can spell it a lot of different ways.
Slockdolager or slogdolager.
There are lots of different ways because it was sort of an irregular kind of word.
But the one that it’s standardized on is S-O-C-K-D-O-L-A-G-E-R.
Yeah, we should mention that.
Well, Micah, thank you so much for reaching out.
We really appreciate it.
Thanks for talking with us.
Thanks so much, guys.
All right, take care.
Take care, Micah.
You too.
Bye.
Bye.
Well, like Micah, if you’ve come across an interesting word in your reading and want to talk with us about it, the number is 877-929-9673.
