ハードコア ― hardest-core

日本語でもカタカナで定着している「ハードコア」という形容詞です。

唐突ですが、英単語で形容詞"hardcore"の最上級は何というでしょう？

答えは以下に。


Colored bulbs cast an eerie blue glow in the restroom of a convenience store where people who inject heroin and other drugs have been seeking the relative privacy of the stalls to shoot up.

The blue lights are meant to discourage people from using drugs in store bathrooms by making it more difficult for them to see their veins. It's an idea that's been around for years but is getting a fresh look as a result of the nation's opioid epidemic.

"The hardest-core opiate user still wants to be accurate. They want to make sure the needle goes in the right spot," said Read Hayes, a University of Florida researcher and director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, a retail industry-supported group that is looking at the lights' effectiveness. The purpose of the blue light is to "disrupt that process" and force people to go somewhere else to take drugs, he said.
(Michael Rubinkam. Retailers experiment with blue lights to deter drug use. ABC News. June 24, 2018.)


"hardcore"は筋金入り、とか中毒（習慣）性の、といった意味の形容詞です。

なるほど、形容詞hardの比較級、最上級は、harder - hardest、ですから、"hardcore"も"hardest-core"になるんですね！？

言われてみればそうだという気もしますが、果たして定着しているのかと思ってコーパスを検索してみたところ、古い用法では1993年から見られます。


Some welfare reform programs are aimed at getting people off welfare and into jobs. CAP ignores the hardest-core welfare recipients and goes after those who already are working, or intend to.
(Associated Press, 1993)


ちなみに比較級となる、"harder-core"も実例があるの？

1件だけヒットしました。


Fueled by a combination of access, anonymity and affordability, online porn has catapulted overall pornography consumption -- bringing in new viewers, encouraging more use from existing fans and escalating consumers from soft-core to harder-core material.
(TIME, 2004)