Gooder vs Gooden - What's the difference?
gooder | gooden |
(nonstandard, humorous) (good)
To make good; improve; better; perfect.
*2009 , Helen Malson, Maree Burns, Critical Feminist Approaches to Eating Dis/Orders :
*2010 , Richard Francis, Fruitlands: The Alcott Family and Their Search for Utopia :
To become good.
To grow; improve; prosper.
(dialectal) To perambulate, usually town to town, collecting alms, gifts, or small gratuities before Christmas-time, usually on .
*1871 , Henry Martin, The history of Brighton and environs :
*1910 , Peter Hampson Ditchfield, Vanishing England: the book :
As an adjective gooder
is (nonstandard|humorous) (good).As a noun gooder
is (nonstandard|humorous) nominalization of good.As a verb gooden is
to make good; improve; better; perfect or gooden can be (dialectal) to perambulate, usually town to town, collecting alms, gifts, or small gratuities before christmas-time, usually on.gooder
English
Adjective
(head)Usage notes
The correct comparative is (better)See also
* do-gooderUsage notes
New England slang, as in: "You're a gooder, for taking care of your mom." A parallel construction to oner, a nominalization of one, to mean "an outstanding person or thing."[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/oner]gooden
English
Etymology 1
From . More at (l).Verb
(en verb)- For many years we have endeavored to comprehend how a/b could transform highly intelligent and in many respects 'model' girls and women (and sometimes boys and men) into unwitting bystanders and accomplices to their own torture and impending death while remaining convinced that they are being perfected and goodened ?
- The passive voice is all-pervasive. This is a world in which virtue is achieved by not doing things, only thus, like Jesus (Wright tells us) may we “be Goodened with Good.
Derived terms
* (l)Etymology 2
Back-formation from goodening, an alteration of .Verb
(en verb)- Phoebe, in support of a good old Sussex custom, regularly, on St. Thomas's Day, December 21st, went out "Goodening ," visiting well-to-do parishioners, to gossip upon the past, over hot elderberry wine and plum cake, and to receive doles, either in money or materials, [...]
- In 1899 the oldest dame who took part in the ceremony was aged ninety-three, while in 1904 a widow "goodened " for the thirtieth year in succession.
