whopper

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

Anything uncommonly large; as, 'That's a whopper,' meaning a monstrous lie. 'In angling to-day, I caught a whopper,' i. e. a very large fish. This word is provincial in various parts of England, and is a common one here. In his paper on the ancient words in Yorkshire, Dr. Willan observes that, "in many other instances, our forefathers seem to have estimated weights and magnitudes by the force of their blows. To us, they employed in gradation, the terms slapper, smacker, banger, thumper, twacker, swinger, and rattler. The word bumper, concerning which much has been said and surmised, is not of a more exalted origin than that which is here stated."--Archæologia, Vol. XVII. p. 162.

Related Words