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What is a good way to formulate the opposite of "most recently"? For example,

Display the five most recently updated streams.

The two most recently hired coders are doing a great job.

How do I better formulate these?

Display the five streams where the greatest amount of time has passed since they were last updated.

The two coders where the greatest amount of time has passed since they were hired are doing a great job.

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3 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

The opposite of most is least, so you could say:

Display the five least recently updated streams

The two least recently hired coders are doing a great job.

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That makes sense to me – Codemonkey Nov 2 '11 at 3:14
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Display the five stalest streams.

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To my knowledge, when "stale" is used to describe sth other than food, it means "lacking originality" or "having lost effectiveness". This answer is misleading. – Irene Nov 2 '11 at 15:43
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@Irene It would be understood correctly for streams in a software context because stale is the opposite of fresh and fresh means recently refreshed or updated. Using stale to refer to coders makes it sound like they smell bad (which is possible, but probably not what the OP was looking for). – jimreed Nov 2 '11 at 17:14
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For the second case, you could say most senior. As in, "The five most senior coders are doing a great job."

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