honorable mention
6
3.8
- noun
- /ˈɒnərəbəl ˈmɛnʃən/
- US
:
mención honorífica
- The committee awarded an honorable mention to the artist for her outstanding work.
- received an honorable mention
- awarded honorable mentions
- first honorable mention
Yeah, there's a couple of honorable mentions that you guys should see in the meme section of this show.
- Yeah, there's a couple of honorable mentions that you guys should see in the meme section of this show.
- OK, before we get to the number one drum intro of all time, we're going to do our honorable mentions.
- So I have two and an honorable mention right over there.
- You can't do PM photo assignments without honorable mentions.
Examples
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Three awards and one honorable mention are given in each of three categories.
Academic text (1998) -
I got honorable mention in a talent show once.
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So I have two and an honorable mention right over there.
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And also, this was going to be our honourable mention, but look at it.
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This year we do have an honorable mention.
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And we have our first ever honorable mention.
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Everybody got honorable mention who showed up.
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"Life and Death" received the first honorable mention in the Human Interest category.
Academic text (2003) -
Honorable mention goes to Rachel for "What is Static Electricity?"
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In 1989, he received an honorable mention in the Olympus International Photo Contest.
Academic text (1995)
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A prize given to someone for achievement or excellence
141
3.4
Public praise for someone's achievement or effort
40
4.6
An honor that rewards very good work or success
39
6.8
An official award or letter praising someone for good work
20
3.2
An official statement praising someone for a good achievement
4
2.9
Official recognition given for important achievements or contributions
How Recognized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning ‘an official recognition for notable achievement’ is directly derived from combining 'honorable' (worthy, deserving respect) with 'mention' (an acknowledgement), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to a laudatory acknowledgement. This construction is cross-linguistically common (e.g. Spanish 'mención honorífica'), although the specific convention of it often being an award for non-winners may require exposure.
Etymology
Honorable mention may come from prize judges who wanted to name work that was worthy but did not win. The word honorable means respected and mention is to say someone's name, so the phrase means a 'special recognition' for someone who did not get the 'top prize'.