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Comment by rtkwe | Hacker News Reader

Socked here is just "hit or struck" which isn't that weird of a phrase to use in the context. We use it all the time for natural disasters, cities are socked by a hurricane.

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I've literally never heard "socked by a hurricane" despite living in an area where hurricanes hit the coast every year. I just did a google search for "socked by a hurricane" and there were a mere 8 results. Seems like a stretch to say this is used "all the time".

I know I'm being pedantic and it doesn't really matter that much, but I stand by my original comment that the headline phrasing was offputting to me.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sock--in

it's not generally used past-tense, and it's not that common -- but i've heard it my whole life on the west coast US.

Must be a west coast thing, never heard the phrase living in the coastal southeast.

Not a west coast thing ... lived all over the west coast for almost 50 years.

I will attempt to bridge this gap by noting that "not that common" is both true and underselling it, like, heard this 5 times in 35 years.

Must be regional then I've heard it several times and read it many times before this article.

It's definitely much less popular than hit by but that's not shocking. https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=socked+by%2Chi...

I think part of what's going on is that it's a bit of a regionalism.

I know what it means in that context, but I would never choose to use that word. It's just not very prevalent where I live.

I’ll throw my hat into the ring and agree that this phrasing makes no sense.

To help the AI with its clickbait generation for next time: “Workers at Ford EV battery plant marred by mold”, “Foibles at Ford battery plant! Mold infestation takes down workforce”

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