It means (according to my trusty New Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary):
- to make full or complete again
- to supply with fresh fuel
- to fill again or anew
- (intransitively) to become full or complete again
According to another dictionary (the one built-in in Mac OS X), the origin of the word can be traced to Old French (and further to Latin, of course), as follows:
ORIGIN late Middle English (in the
sense [supply abundantly] ): from Old
French repleniss-, lengthened stem of
replenir, from re- ‘again’ (also
expressing intensive force) + plenir
‘fill’ (from Latin plenus ‘full’ ).
Based on that, I don't think it has had other meanings in English earlier. As to why should one use this word instead of the less fancy refill – I have no idea, except perhaps to show off & try to sound educated.
Dude has its origins in what Shakespeare would call a "clothes wearing man".
The article "Words and Their History", by R.W. McAlpine, printed in Dodge's 1901 St. Nicholas, Volume 28, Part 2, cites an even earlier appearance in print: 1876, with common usage beginning as early as 1873.
It goes further to suggest that dude is "undoubtedly" derived from the Scotch duddies (clothes) and that the term was originally gender neutral:
The word dude began to mingle in the speech of the people of this country about the year 1873, but did not make its appearance in print until 1876, when it boldly met the public gaze in the February number of "Putnam's Magazine." The origin of the word has been a question ever since it asserted itself in every-day speech, and its claim to represent a human nonentity in raiment befitting either fool or fashion-plate has never yet received the stamp of authority. The word is undoubtedly from the Scotch duddies (clothes), which crossed into England to become duds or dudes; and the first dude was what Shakspere calls "a clothes-wearing man." In Queen Anne's time he was known as a macaroni, one of the curiosities whom Addison described as "those circumforaneous wits whom every nation calls by the name of that dish which it loves best. In Holland they are termed pickled herrings, in France jean potages, in Italian macaronies, and in Great Britain jack puddings." In a play by Terence, the Latin dramatist, occur these lines:
Ila visus est
Dudum quia varia veste exornatus fuit,
which has thus been put in English:
He seemed a dude, because he was arrayed in a jacket of many colors.
This bears out the claim that dude is from the Scotch word duddies, clothes; and reminds me that the paragraph referred to above as having appeared in "Putnam's Magazine," February, 1876, is in these words:
Think of her? I think she is dressed like a dud; can't say how she 'd look in the costume of the present century.
So dude was once of the common gender; or, rather, there was a dud as well as a dude; whereas in our day the dude is of one kind only, and whether in social converse or in composition is not seldom represented by the neuter pronoun it.
Best Answer
Here is the entry for humdinger in Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (1961):
Partridge published a dictionary of RAF slang in 1945, so he's especially knowledgeable about words used in that service.
Wentworth & Flexner, Dictionary of American Slang (1961) addresses the dinger part of the term in its entry for humdinger:
And here is part 1 of the dinger entry from that same source:
Chapman & Kipfer, Dictionary of American Slang, Third Edition (1996) removes its predecessor's comment that humdinger is "archaic and dial. now," though it reasserts the "by 1905" coinage period. I can't help wondering if Bob Dylan's rhyme in "I Shall Be Free" ("She's a humdinger/Folk singer/Dead ringer/For a thingamajigger"), which came out in 1963, helped bring humdinger back into popular usage. The Ngram Viewer graph for humdinger is not inconsistent with that possibility, though the relationship does seem rather far-fetched.
The third volume of the prodigious Farmer & Henley, Slang and Its Analogues, with alphabetical entries ranging from "Fla. to Hyps." was published in 1893 and has no entry for humdinger, so the term certainly wasn't in widespread use long before 1905.
A Google Books search, however, turns up Roberts et al. v. Date et al. (1903), a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision involving interests in an Alaska mining claim called "the Humdinger" that had been filed by the defendants in the case on June 22, 1900. Other mining claims under dispute in the same case were called "the Marie," "the Discovery," and "the Eagle Canyon." The Humdinger claim was located on Slate creek, so "Humdinger" does not appear to be a place name (as opposed to a descriptive name).
Another early reference appears in the Paint, Oil and Drug Review (February 6, 1907):
Yet another early Google Books mention of humdinger comes from the records of the Brown Swiss Cattle Breeders' Association (1908), which details the parenting exploits of a bull named Humdinger that lived in Illinois and sired 18 registered calves that were born between January 31, 1906, and November 19, 1907. Humdinger himself was born on December 5, 1903, and registered (#2187) at some unspecified time thereafter.