Of course, in an informal setting, this expression might not be seen as too terrible. I wonder, however, if this isn't just an issue of logic: 'Winning' is already a superlative (your team can't win something 'more than the other team won it because they would have lost), so wouldn't 'winningest' be redundant?
I wonder, too, if there are any other -ing adjectives that can be used comparatively. I can't think of any off hand.
Also, I wonder if this is a variation of a construction that we've gotten from British English ("the most + adj + noun").
Paul
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction" (_Twelfth Night_ 3.4.127-128).
From: Scott Lavitt <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Fri, February 26, 2010 12:36:25 PM
Subject: Double suffixes
| Recently a high school boy used the word "winningest," as in "the winningest team," which just sounds wrong to me. It's listed as an informal word in Webster's. I was trying to think of a rule why this may not be SAE. First I thought perhaps the double suffix, -ing and -est, but I can think of examples where double suffixes are acceptable. I'm wondering if anyone can shed some light on the matter.
Thank you,
Scott |
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