Hey. You know how you can out-smart, or more preferably, out-fox someone who is smart? What would you say when you out-cockied someone who has a cocky way about them? Because I'm pretty sure 'out-cockied' is not something you say on any planet. And while I'm here, does that come with a hyphen?
I like out-strutted. Doesn't matter in the slightest if it's not a ratified, dictionary-stamped word. If the meaning comes across clearly and intuitively, that's all that should really matter. There's a person in one of my other groups whose online persona is "the person who posts the dry dusty bones of long-dead words that have not been uttered by a single living human in well over a century, as though they were treasures with which to adorn one's work", which would be the opposite paradigm to what your out-strutted represents. It may not have been born within sanctified wedlock, so to speak, but it is most certainly alive and kicking.
Yeah, maybe I should have specified. I wouldn't mind something that can be found in a dictionary, but I have no qualms at all with any combination of letters that gets the message through.
I dunno, is "being cocky" even something you can really best others at? I mean, sure, you can be cockier than a rather cocky person, but that doesn't in itself imply a conflict. Outsmarting or outwitting someone suggests you've somehow defeated them in an intellectual battle or competition with some sort of criteria for determining a winner. It's kinda context sensitive. Like, Usain Bolt can run much faster that I can, but that's not the same thing as Usain Bolt outrunning me. For that, the two of us would need to meet and race each other, or I guess I could be chasing him for some reason, whatever. "Outcockied" to me mostly sounds like a tongue-in-cheek way of telling a cocky person that you've found someone even cockier, implying the latter needs to put more effort into it.
I think it's something to think on, get in a bit of imagery maybe: eclipsed, overshadowed, cowed by a bigger cocksureness. Make the plot point memorable. Yes. Another way would be to switch the focus. Point it at the one who's been out(done).. Mickey's swagger took a hiding that day, he knew it, he couldn't stake such a claim.
Considering the subject the characters were talking about just before, it's probably best to not use this one. ;o)
I'm gonna let it simmer until I come across it again in draft 2. See what all these new words stuck in the back of my head will make me think about it then. I like out-swaggered. One-upped is a contender too. But every time I go to change it I look at out-cockied and don't change it for some reason. So, I guess it's best to let it lie until I forget about it, so it surprises me when I get back to it. If that makes any sense.
