Terry J. Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> added the comment: After looking at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/base I can explain better why 'most base class' is wrong, and felt wrong to participants in the python-list thread. 'Base' is actually two words. As a noun (or verb), it comes from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis), a foundation from which other things extend or derive. As an adjective, it comes from Late Latin bassus (“low”). In computer science and Python, the couplet 'base class' is being used, it seems to me and apparently others, as a noun-noun compound, meaning, 'foundation class', not as an adjective-noun phrase meaning 'low class' (let along 'depraved class'). However, 'most base class' must be parsed as '(most base) class', with 'base' re-interpreted as the adjective meaning 'low' (or worse). The switch in meaning of 'base' is similar in 'baseball' versus 'most base ball'. ---------- _______________________________________ Python tracker <report@bugs.python.org> <https://bugs.python.org/issue20285> _______________________________________