BEATINEST adjective (beet-n-ist)

adjective

1. South Midland and Southern U.S. most remarkable or unusual: This is the beatinest town I ever did see.


Quotes

"I'll introduce you to the whole team." "Dang!" the boy exclaimed, tugging his cap lower on his head. "That'll be the beatinest! ... "
--*Darryl Brock,*Two in the Field, 2002

“My land sakes alive, if it isn’t the beatinest.”
--*E. J. Craine,*The Air Mystery of Isle La Motte, 1930



Origin

Beatinest may be best or only known nowadays to readers of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1874). In chapter 13 Huck tells a tall story worthy of Odysseus to the watchman of a ferry boat, who reacts to Huck’s tale of woe with, "My George! It's the beatenest thing I ever struck. And then what did you all do?" Beatinest actually predates the book by about a quarter century, but as one would guess, it is 19th-century country dialect.