Super

[Alan]

Hi,

It's fascinating how words chop and change in their use and in their meanings. In my remote island it sounds quite strange to hear the words super Tuesday again and again recently with I presume the sense of 'very important Tuesday'. To me 'super' is the sort of word used in the 1930s by what the novelist, Evelyn Waugh, in his novel 'Vile Bodies', called Bright Young Things. These would be not very intelligent and fun-loving young people, who didn't really have what you might call a very wide vocabulary and who whooped the word 'super' at the drop of a hat to describe anything and anybody they liked at any particular moment. The sort of characters you find in the novels of P.G.Wodehouse - I am referring to the gormless ones, that is. And to me that's totally out of character with what 'super Tuesday' denotes.

Then again, going back to the 18th century, the revered lexicograher, Samuel Johnson has his own way of defining 'super' without getting too excited about it! Our Sam describes its meaning thus: in composition, denotes more than another or more than enough or on the top. Now you can't argue with that, can you?

Have a super Thursday!

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Word Story: Dictionary

[Yankee]

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The meaning of super in "Super Tuesday" is not a "new" usage to me. A very large number of US states hold their primary elections on "Super Tuesday", so the word super is an indication of superior size/number -- a size which is above and beyond the norm. Isn't that a rather traditional usage for super?

Of course, the fact that a large number of states hold their primaries on "Super Tuesday" also makes the voting on that particular day rather important since so much more than usual is decided at the same time.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Alan]

OK. Fine, and there was me just trying to inject a spot of humour into this February morning!

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Briefly

[Yankee]

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Sorry, I failed to see all that much humor in leading off with a comment about "Super Tuesday", immediately followed by talk of vileness and unintelligent people.

Rather than react to that particular train of thought, I only tried to describe the meaning of super in "Super Tuesday" as I understand it -- which was apparently different from the way you understood it. This is the "What do you want to talk about" forum. Should I refrain from talking about my understanding of the word super as used in the American expression "Super Tuesday"? Is there some problem with talking about that?

Don't worry, though. There were also plenty of people who called this year's Super Tuesday "the February 5th primaries". Perhaps that's more satisfactory to the British ear?
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Ralf]