Talk:hardly the crime of the century

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hardly the crime of the century

Hardly the idiom of the century. Ƿidsiþ 07:42, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

• I was thinking of deleting it on sight. Maybe (deprecated template usage) crime of the century would be worth an entry? SemperBlotto (talk) 08:03, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Or simply of the century, for uses like "trial of the century", "crime of the century" and "game of the century" which aren't SOP at least to the extent that phrases are used for events that happen far, far more often than once a century (unlike, say, "storm of the century", which does seem to refer to a once-in-a-hundred-years storm). Smurrayinchester (talk) 11:45, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

I agree, delete, but create of the century. I don't think it literally means 'once a century' but more like 'the most memorable of the century'. —CodeCat 11:49, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

But isn't it just like (deprecated template usage) of the week, (deprecated template usage) of the day, (deprecated template usage) of the hour, (deprecated template usage) of all time? Ƿidsiþ 11:55, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

I suppose so, but I don't see how this is a sense of of? —CodeCat 12:00, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

I didn't think of that. The OED actually has, under sense 30 ("preceded by [...] a word equivalent to a superlative"), subsense f: "A person or thing considered the leading example of his, her, or its kind in a specified period of time". Which, despite having spent hours expanding (deprecated template usage) of, I apparently haven't yet included -- but maybe we should have it. Ƿidsiþ 12:09, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

See w:Crime of the century (idiom). "Of the century" seems to have crossed over into idiomaticity. The list of "Xs" used in "Xs of the century" consistent with this construction by order of frequency at COCA is trial, crime, storm, person, deals, wedding, man, sale, game, event, fight, find, elections, understatement, etc. It would seem to require an non-gloss definition like used to indicate the most remarkable example of its kind, but with something better than "indicate".

Substituting other time periods (day, month, year) seems to give us a construction rather than an idiom. We don't have a good way of presenting constructions that would be useful to a user and does not mislead, IMO. DCDuring TALK 14:32, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I'm not opposed to having it, I was just pointing out that several similar constructions are possible. Ƿidsiþ 14:37, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Cf. "not the happiest person in the world". Equinox ◑ 14:52, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Delete the nominated entry, SoP, should be covered elsewhere. Mglovesfun (talk) 20:57, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Deleted by Metaknowledge. — TAKASUGI Shinji (talk) 06:27, 9 August 2012 (UTC)