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Jul 11th, 2009 @ 12:06 am

OK, I’m going to go on a semantics journey with you all. this has been bugging me since about 5:00 today. I was at work and uttered the phrase “very unique” in conversation, and was readily corrected by a close friend as the meaning of the word is to be one of a kind. I now understand this to be a heated topic of debate upon further research, and at the time I defended myself in saying that a thing can be more or less unique than another thing, therefore something can be very unique. after some consideration, I’ve come up with a good clear example. say you’ve got 5 apples. one of those apples happens to be green. it is unique. in the next room, you’ve got baskets and baskets of oranges. a warehouse full. one of those oranges happens to be fucking purple. that orange is very unique. it is more unique than a green apple, because in this context uniqueness is akin to rarity. if you’re one in a million you are more unique than if you are one in ten. you remain one of a kind, so it does not affect the purest definition of the word, but there is a difference in unlikelyhood. from Dictionary.com: Many authors of usage guides, editors, teachers, and others feel strongly that such “absolute” words as complete, equal, perfect, and especially unique cannot be compared because of their “meaning”: a word that denotes an absolute condition cannot be described as denoting more or less than that absolute condition. However, all such words have undergone semantic development and are used in a number of senses, some of which can be compared by words like more, very, most, absolutely, somewhat, and totally and some of which cannot. The earliest meanings of unique when it entered English around the beginning of the 17th century were “single, sole” and “having no equal.” By the mid-19th century unique had developed a wider meaning, “not typical, unusual,” and it is in this wider sense that it is compared: The foliage on the late-blooming plants is more unique than that on the earlier varieties. The comparison of so-called absolutes in senses that are not absolute is standard in all varieties of speech and writing. what do you think, tumblr?

OK, I’m going to go on a semantics journey with you all. this has been bugging me since about 5:00 today.


I was at work and uttered the phrase “very unique” in conversation, and was readily corrected by a close friend as the meaning of the word is to be one of a kind. I now understand this to be a heated topic of debate upon further research, and at the time I defended myself in saying that a thing can be more or less unique than another thing, therefore something can be very unique.

after some consideration, I’ve come up with a good clear example. say you’ve got 5 apples. one of those apples happens to be green. it is unique. in the next room, you’ve got baskets and baskets of oranges. a warehouse full. one of those oranges happens to be fucking purple. that orange is very unique. it is more unique than a green apple, because in this context uniqueness is akin to rarity. if you’re one in a million you are more unique than if you are one in ten. you remain one of a kind, so it does not affect the purest definition of the word, but there is a difference in unlikelyhood.

from Dictionary.com:

Many authors of usage guides, editors, teachers, and others feel strongly that such “absolute” words as complete, equal, perfect, and especially unique cannot be compared because of their “meaning”: a word that denotes an absolute condition cannot be described as denoting more or less than that absolute condition. However, all such words have undergone semantic development and are used in a number of senses, some of which can be compared by words like more, very, most, absolutely, somewhat, and totally and some of which cannot. The earliest meanings of unique when it entered English around the beginning of the 17th century were “single, sole” and “having no equal.” By the mid-19th century unique had developed a wider meaning, “not typical, unusual,” and it is in this wider sense that it is compared: The foliage on the late-blooming plants is more unique than that on the earlier varieties. The comparison of so-called absolutes in senses that are not absolute is standard in all varieties of speech and writing.

what do you think, tumblr?

VERY UNIQUE semantics only sith deal in absolutes
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