sockdolager

English

Etymology

Unknown, 1827 US, presumably fanciful variant of sock (“to hit”); compare contemporary fanciful American coinages.

Various speculative etymologies have been suggested, such as corruption of doxology, due to this occurring at the end of church worship, hence “finality”.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): [ˌsɑkˈdɑːɫ.ə.d͡ʒɚ]
• Hyphenation: sock‧​dol‧​a‧​ger

Noun

sockdolager (plural sockdolagers)

1. (US, slang, dated) A hard hit, a knockout or finishing blow, or conclusive argument.
   • 1831, James Kirke Paulding, Lion of the West:

     He’ll come off as badly as a feller I once hit a sledge hammer lick over the head—a real sogdolloger.

   • 1838, James Fenimore Cooper, Home as Found:

     There is but one ‘sogdollager’ in the universe, and that is in Lake Oswego.

   • 1859, Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms:

     "I gave the fellow a socdolager over his head with the barrel of my gun,"

   • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 20, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:

     The thunder would go rumbling and grumbling away, and quit—and then rip comes another flash and another sockdologer.

   • 1918, Norman Lindsay, The Magic Pudding, page 68:

     “If punching parrots on the beak wasn't too painful for pleasure, I'd land you a sockdolager on the muzzle that ud lay you out till Christmas.”

2. (US, slang, dated) Something large or otherwise exceptional; a whopper.
   • 1953, Ray Bradbury, The Murderer::

     Hey, Al, thought I'd call you from the locker room out here at Green Hills. Just made a sockdolager hole in one! A hole in one, Al! (etc.)

3. (US, fishing) A combination of two hooks which close upon each other, by means of a spring, as soon as the fish bites.

Alternative forms

• socdolager, sockdologer, sogdolloger

Derived terms

• sockdologizing

See also

• Appendix:Fanciful 19th century American coinages