Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) a remarkable and excellent object, event or person.

1898		Yakimah Herald (Wash.) 25 Aug. 1/1: The trip to Walla Walla promises to be a humdinger.
1904		Minneapolis Jrnl (Minn.) 16 Feb. 11/4: It was a ’humdinger.’ We refer to the silver anniversary edition of the Minneapolis Journal.
1905		L. Pound ‘Dialect Speech in Nebraska’ in DN III:i 62: hum-dinger, n. Term of admiration. ‘She’s a humdinger.’.
1908		Cocorino Sun (AZ) 17 Apr. 6/3: We’ve got a new line of granite ware that’s a Hum-dinger for price and quality.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘Easy Picking’ in Taking the Count 299: He’s a hum-dinger, I tell you.
1920		R.J. Fry Salvation of Jemmy Sl. II i: I got a date tonight with the swellest little jane in this town — a regular good little pal — a humdinger — a peach!
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 352: It’s been a humdinger of a fight.
1927		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 20 Aug. 11/2: Eventually the model ‘S.M. Herald’ leader will read like this [...] Square ’n all e’s an ’umdinger when it comes to slingin’ the bull.
1931		O. Strange Law O’ The Lariat 49: When she asked him if he liked the ranch, he said it was a ‘humdinger’.
1939		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 8 Apr. 11: [cartoon caption] She’s a hum-dinger, son.
1946		(con. 1910s) J. Thompson Heed the Thunder (1994) 71: She’s a humdinger, too, ain’t, she Gus?
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 51: ‘Old Sexy just got out of hospital to-day. Remember him?’ ‘The bloke that got it in the tool at Galatos?’ ‘That’s the bloke. And a humdinger he had too. At shortarm inspection the M.O. used to go green with envy.’.
1956		J. Reynolds Woman of Bangkok (1959) 13: The one in red certainly had a pair of humdingers. Like coconuts.
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 6 April in Proud Highway (1997) 370: How’s that for a lead on my last & final Brazil story? A humdinger, eh?
1977		G. Swarthout Melodeon 38: That would be a corker, though. Oh, yes, this would be a humdinger.
1986		R.G. Barrett Godson 280: ‘Well. Here’s to the Yurriki Humdinger Boogie Woogie Ball’.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Culture 13 June 9: A humdinger of a documentary.
2004		Guardian Weekend 3 July 3: But syphilis is the big humdinger.
2011		J.J. DeCeglie Drawing Dead [ebook] I know Evie, good girl, real looker [...] a fucking humdinger.
2017		Sun. Times (London) Culture 19 Mar. 🌐 The climactic story is a humdinger.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 129: ‘Now my second [question] is the humdinger’.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 5: It will be a real humdinger, a bona dinarli-spinner .