Is stupidest a word?
All right, let’s just dive right into this stupid thing. Recently, a professional athlete was quoted in an article as saying I made the stupidest mistake. The athlete was talking about his personal life-his VERY personal life. (It’s hard to keep track these days, isn’t it?) The superlative form of stupid is most stupid, as in I made the most stupid mistake, not stupidest. Stupidest can be heard and seen everywhere, but it’s wrong. (Please don’t ask me to roll out my entire exposition on why finding a word in a modern dictionary doesn’t make it legitimate, standard English. Paul and I have already paddled across that ocean several times.) Stupid is just like lucid (same -id ending). The comparative form is more lucid, and the superlative form is most lucid. Likewise, the comparative form of stupid is more stupid, and the superlative form is most stupid. In fact, in general, -id words use more and most instead of -er and -est. (The water was more tepid, he was the most lucid, they could
