Penultimate

I agree entirely about context but there seems to be a school of thought that thinks it's obscure or archaic.

 

To resolve, I go to an old favorite of mine, which should tell you all you need to know about how old I think I am:



Good idea: Using penultimate in an editorial, particularly one in a large and respected newspaper. Example -- But the season’s penultimate program brought an ambitious undertaking: David Del Tredici’s “Final Alice,” described by the composer as a “grand concerto for voice and orchestra” and an “opera written in concert form.” Saturday’s presentation was a new chamber version by Alexander Platt, a conductor and the music director of Maverick Concerts. (New York Times review of "Final Alice" by Steve Smith, published Sept. 3)

Bad idea: Using penultimate in a high school football gamer. Example -- The Southside Rockets scored 14 points in the penultimate stanza to vanquish the Meadow Lake Tigers 20-17 Friday night

 

The late J. Fred Duckett (see thread from earlier this year), in announcing those distance events that were usually the last event of the day at marathon track meets, loved to refer to the "penultimate lap."

 

Yes, JR, it is a highfalutin word, and not using it does not mean the dumbing-down of America by any means. There is utterly no context where it's better than "next-to-last." None. And a myth: fewer words is always better. No, it's not.

 

BTW, I just caught up with some prodigal_son posts. I have a pretty decent idea who it's the new form of. I'm not gonna say, but just sayin'

 

Gotta disagree, dools.

There are times when penultimate is correct. As someone else mentioned, it likely adds a whiff of gravitas one doesn't need in a HS football gamer, but there are times when it would absolutely be correct.

 

I've used it.

When telling a story and telling it well (as opposed to attempting to give gravitas to a prep gamer), that word works a hell of a lot better than "second-to-last."

I actually like the word quite a bit, but it should be used judiciously.

There are a lot of words (malaise, penultimate, distasteful, glory, achieve, etc.) that I like to use in stories when appropriate. Why treat our readers like third graders when third graders aren't reading newspapers anyway? Despite the inanity that occurs on the other end of the phone when we answer it, I try to credit our readers with some intelligence.

After all, they're already showing some smarts by reading my stuff in the first place.

;D ;D 8) 8)

 

If I use it, I mean "penultimate." As in, next-to-last, but not as wordy.

Not in every story, of course. But occasionally.

 

Penultimate mightier than swordultimate.

 

The Penultimatum.

 

Anytime you use a so-called big word in a story it has to flow.

Adding it for the sake of adding it is silly, such as MM's "bad idea" listed earlier. I used to do that shit with headlines when I was starting out, I'm the only person who managed to get "indefatigable" in a package headline. Clearly, I was showing off and that's stupid.

Also if you're going all Grantland Rice and using nothing but purple prose, you're an asshole.

But if a so-called big word does flow, it's a silly thing for a copy editor to complain about. I actually used penultimate in a story I wrote tonight, because in the context I used it, it worked better than "second-last", which has no flow to it at all.

The rest of my story was straight-up profanity.

But in all seriousness, I err on the side of not insulting the intelligence of our readers. Many will get a certain word, others who don't will get it by the inference of the sentence, as for the others? In most cases, they're not going to get hung up on one word to the point where they stop reading a story. It's a minor thing to worry about unless, as mentioned, it gets out of hand.

 

no patience to read an entire thread on this, but dooley needs to get over it. depends on who he/you/me/and the other guy/gal are writing for.