a stonking lead

[bennymix]

Learned a new word today. Is it heard outside the sceptred isle? (e.g. in AE?)


Theresa May helped to divide Britain. She won’t heal it | Yvette Cooper

In the race to be the new Tory leader, Theresa May has a stonking lead, her pitch being that she is the only grown-up in the room. And when you look, she has a point.

 

[dermott]

Great word "stonking". If it's not used outside BrE, it should be. Just looked up its origins. Oxford Dictionaries says it from the verb to stonk. stonk - definition of stonk in English from the Oxford dictionary

 

[rhitagawr]

Yes, great word. I'd never heard it in its military sense and I didn't know its etymology was supposedly military. It can refer to steam trains. The express came stonking up the bank. There was a lot of noise and smoke. As in an artillery bombardment, I suppose.

 

[cando]

It’s often used with “great” as an intensifier to describe something big and imposing, with a slightly pejorative tone; “I was going to put my car in the driveway but there’s a stonking great truck parked across the entrance!”

 

[dermott]

Or "I made myself a stonking great hamburger last night". Which I didn't, but now wish I had.

 

[Linkway]

"Stonking" - yes, a great (informal) word, not to be confused with "stinking" even in political contexts!

 

[dojibear]

In the US, I commonly hear "stinking" used as a general intensifier with no specific meaning.

At other times it has its normal meaning of "smelly".

 

[ain'ttranslationfun?]

In the US, we often use "stinking" in the way described above (if I understand them correctly): a general intensifier with no specific meaning. At other times it has its normal meaning of "smelly".

"We"? Not I, doji...I only use it with a pejorative connotation.

 

[dojibear]

Understood. I changed my wording to say it is something I commonly hear.

Do you only hear it used meaning "smelly"? Or do you also hear it used as a generic intensifier (as I said) with a perjorative connotation (as you said)?

 

[bennymix]

'Stonking' however does not appear to be a variant of 'stinking', as in 'stinking rich.'

 

[Andygc]

'Stonking' however does not appear to be a variant of 'stinking', as in 'stinking rich.'

No, it most certainly is not. "Stinking" is a diversion in a thread about "stonking".

 

[cando]

Apparently it is from the verb "to stonk" which is World War II British military slang for a massed artillery bombardment on an enemy position.

"5th Battery'll be stonking Jerry in the morning!" ( Urban Dictionary: stonk )

Allegedly derived from the jargon "standard (regimental) concentration" for saturated mortar fire, abbreviated in writing to "std.conc.", hence verbal contraction to "stonc" then "stonk".

 

[Hermione Golightly]

I didn't know about its military origin and haven't heard it used for years, or should I say 'yonks'.
'Stinking rich' is like 'filthy rich' and is derogatory. There seem to be so many more words now to indicate vast but stonking is very good for words like 'lead' or 'majority' with the idea that it's so big it will be beat and defeat opposition.

 

[ain'ttranslationfun?]

So in these cases it's sort of like "swingeing" (not so widely known in the States)?

 

[RM1(SS)]

Apparently it is from the verb "to stonk" which is World War II British military slang for a massed artillery bombardment on an enemy position.

"5th Battery'll be stonking Jerry in the morning!" ( Urban Dictionary: stonk )

Allegedly derived from the jargon "standard (regimental) concentration" for saturated mortar fire, abbreviated in writing to "std.conc.", hence verbal contraction to "stonc" then "stonk".

I read somewhere, long, long ago, that the average Tommy used "stonk" (a noun) to mean any sort of mass bombardment, and that this usage annoyed the gunners, to whom a "stonk" was a specific kind of bombardment.