best-informed

The compound adjective 'best-informed' is a modern English formation that logically combines two elements with clear Germanic and Latinate lineages. The intensifier 'best', of Proto-Germanic origin (batizô), carries its core superlative meaning of 'most good' or 'to the highest degree'. It modifies the participial adjective 'informed', which derives from the Latin verb informare, literally 'to shape or form within', a concept that evolved through Medieval Latin and Old French to mean 'to instruct or give knowledge to'. Thus, the word's literal construction—'most shaped by knowledge'—elegantly conveys its modern abstract sense of possessing the highest quality or most complete set of information, reflecting an ideal state of being thoroughly instructed on a matter.

Structure: best (most) + informed (having knowledge) - best: From Old English betst, betest, the superlative form of gōd (good). It functions as an intensifying adverb modifying the adjective. - informed: From Latin informare (to shape, form, train, instruct), via Old French enformer. The past participle form functions as an adjective meaning 'having knowledge or information'.