Stupid Monday

[username]

Are you making those faces because stupidest isn't a real word? I don't care, I like it better than most stupid.

Stupidest or most stupid....

In fact, you can say either. I know many cite the "general rule" that -er and -est are added to one-syllable adjectives or to two-syllable words that end with -y (-> "happier", "happiest"), and that all other words should use "more" and "most". Others note that adding an un- to the root word doesn't change anything (hence "kindest" and "UN-kindest" are both proper forms). But it is not quite so wooden as that.

There are, in fact, a number of other two-syllable words that add the endings.

Some of these come in clusters, such as those ending with -ow (shallow-er, narrow-est; I think the final vowel makes these much like the final -y words), a number of words that end with -le (simple, subtle, gentle, little, noble, feeble; several of which seem to 'collapse' to two-syllables WITH the endings, e.g., simplest, noblest), though certainly not all ('ablest' is fine, but not 'stablest').

Others don't fall into such a pattern, yet they are widely accepted as admitting the endings -- among these are profoundest, winningest, losingest, crookedest, wickedest, and stupidest.

That is, there is NOT a simple, hard-and-fast rule.

You're welcome. Gotta love google.