My friend Wes Felter recently wrote about a computer that he’s building using premium parts. He describes it in a blog entry titled Wes’s Penultimate Linux Box.
I believe that by “penultimate”, he meant to say “archetypal”, “quintessential” or maybe even good ol’ “best”. However, that’s not what “penultimate” means. It means “second to last”.
To really mess with people’s heads, start making use of the word “antepenultimate”, which means “third to last”.
11 replies on “Public service announcement: the meaning of the word "penultimate"”
Shouldn’t geeks know this? It was in Live at the Hollywood Bowl for christ’s sake!
—8<--- Michaelangelo: I’ve got it. I’ve got it. We’ll call it The Last-But-One Supper.
Pope: What?
Michaelangelo: Well, there must have been one. If there was a last one, there must have been a one before that. So this is The Penultimate Supper. The Bible doesn’t say how many people were there, now, does it?
We usually use “the penultimate foo” as meaning “nearly the last foo that will ever needed.” (presumably because this foo is so good). This usage is quite common.
Personally, I’m waiting for the postultimate computer. That’s the one that comes after the last one.
Doesn’t penultimate have another meaning to do with handwriting?
I seem to remember something about the penultimate and the depthsonic
Ethymologically, penultimate means “next to last”, so it could be construed as “almost the last” computer [anyone would need]. I am sure that is the meaning Wes implied.
Icidentally, I think I remember reading that Feynman loved the word “antepenultimate”. I think it was in “surely you’re joking”, that he mentions how he loves the word, but I haven’t been able to find it either by googling or amazoning, and my dead trees book is in a box somewhere. Anyone can help?
Javier.-
Javier,
No trouble here finding the words
antepenultimate
and antepenult
online. Latin scholars remember it as one of the places a multisyllabic word might receive the main stress.
Calling a computer the penultimate might mean that if this one does not work out, you are willing to try just one more afterwards. Presumably retreating to a Luddite hermitage in the frozen North otherwise.
Rich
Thanks, Rich. But what I meant is I couldn’t find the Feynman quote, not that I couldn’t find the word.
Cheers, Javier.-
Linux Journal does an annual feature on the “ultimate linux box.”
As the specs and attendant price tag associated with their “ultimate” boxes tend to be well beyond what any reasonable person would spend themselves, Wes’ box is probably a hair lower on the food chain. Being (no doubt) a reasonable person, he therefore only aspires to the distinction of the penultimate linux box.
Holy shit, Mr. Anonymous, you’re the only person in the entire Internet who got the joke.
–Wes
Holy shit, Mr. Anonymous, you’re the only person in the entire Internet who got the joke.
–Wes
I suspect that “Anonymous” is none other than Alex Trebek, the Smartest Man in the World.