Penultimate

[dooley_womack1]

It's the next-to-last thing I want to see in a story (other than calling an innocent person guilty). It's newspaper-ese that a huge chunk of readership doesn't know the meaning of. It doesn't show sophistication, it shows stuffiness. If it's the last thing, or next-to-last thing I do, I hope to persuade you to expunge it when you see it.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

WCW should have called Renegade the Penultimate Warrior

 

[dooley_womack1]

That reminds me of the worst wrestling gimmick ever: One Warrior Nation. Ultimate and some jobber were the only members.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

That reminds me of the worst wrestling gimmick ever: One Warrior Nation. Ultimate and some jobber were the only members.

It wasn't just some jobber! It was ... I'll be damned if I can remember what he was calling himself by this point, but it was Brutus "The Zodiac Furface Butcher Barber Disciple Clipmaster Booty Man" Beefcake! But yeah, the whole thing was pretty damned lame.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Again, proud that I didn't quite have it totally right.

 

[dooley_womack1]

And I could gladly go on all day showing why Meat is still a virgin , but back to the topic: Anyone care to defend penultimate?

 

[spnited]

I will defend penultimate


Right after I get done defending TJ Simers

 

[Mystery_Meat]

And I could gladly go on all day showing why Meat is still a virgin , but back to the topic: Anyone care to defend penultimate?

Hey hey hey. Wrestling knowledge doesn't even crack the Billboard Hot 100 for reasons I'm a virgin. Not even on the bubbling under chart. It may be around 35 on the Adult Contemporary list, but I don't have it in front of me.

And penultimate is as elegant and appropriate as a tuxedo t-shirt.

 

[Pete Incaviglia]

It's the next-to-last thing I want to see in a story (other than calling an innocent person guilty). It's newspaper-ese that a huge chunk of readership doesn't know the meaning of. It doesn't show sophistication, it shows stuffiness. If it's the last thing, or next-to-last thing I do, I hope to persuade you to expunge it when you see it.

We had an intern use it, and use it wrong.

I've been in the biz a decade, and I didn't know the meaning. I had to look it up. And the intern was wrong.

I agree, most readers don't know the word.

Hell, I was once told to "write for an eighth grade reading level because that's the average grasp of the readers."

 

[Cansportschick]

Wow, you learn something new everyday.

 

[Pete Incaviglia]

From dictionary.com

pe·nul·ti·mate

–adjective
1. next to the last: the penultimate scene of the play.
2. of or pertaining to a penult.
–noun
3. a penult.

pe·nul·ti·mate
adj. Next to last.
n. The next to the last.

 

[Dan Rydell]

It's the next-to-last thing I want to see in a story (other than calling an innocent person guilty). It's newspaper-ese that a huge chunk of readership doesn't know the meaning of. It doesn't show sophistication, it shows stuffiness. If it's the last thing, or next-to-last thing I do, I hope to persuade you to expunge it when you see it.

Got that right.

Throwing foreign phrases -- especially Latin and French -- into a newspaper story bugs me the same way. Magazine stories, too.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Sacre bleu! Ergo, don't do it.

 

[dooley_womack1]

And what the hell is a penult? The new Kia model?

 

[forever_town]

A famous journalist (I don't remember who it was) told a story about his father reading one of his stories when he was a 15-year-old sportswriter for his local rag. He said his father had an eighth grade education.

Anyway, the kid used "alacrity" in a story and his father looked the word up. Then, the father said, "I see by the dictionary that alacrity means quick. Next time, say what you mean." According to the journalist, it took his professor an hour and a half to make the same point.

Don't try to wow people with an erudite vocabularity. If you're passionate about your subject, that will come through in your writing.

 

[MartinEnigmatica]

I'll defend penultimate. Yeah, I've never used it in a story, but to treat it like a cancer-stricken word is just silly. Look the damn thing up. People, especially newspapers, use the language like humans generally use their brains - that is to say, only a fraction.
I'll repeat that I've never used it, but if I was trying to add gravity to a series of events, I might throw it in. Penultimate comes across a bit more suspenseful than next-to-last. Or, 'after this, there's only one more.'
With all that said, it does fall into the sect of English that gets used when you haven't written a lot and you haven't done enough reporting - basically trying to put lace curtains over a broken window.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

 

[Cansportschick]

That is what I thought it was at first. Like Papermate....too funny.

 

[dooley_womack1]

Nah, that'd be the ultimate pen. And the details of a story should provide the gravity, not some shopworn word.

 

[MartinEnigmatica]

Ok, fine. But then no newspaper can ever call a celebration (Bi)centennial, a plane amphibious, a player adept, or anything else that has a pretty direct connection - or sounds close - to Latin.
Yeah, paint the picture with details, but I just don't get the decision to effectively strike it from the dictionary. It's not like the word has to be put in italics.
And lest I start an argument, I agree that when casually thrown around, penultimate is a stupid word to use. Sticks out like a sore thumb. But I wouldn't totally rule out using it.