I’m fed up with hearing that something or someone is “almost unique”.
“Unique” does not mean “very special” or “very unusual”.
It means “one of a kind, with nothing else exactly like it anywhere in the world”.
The word is not a qualifier, it is an absolute. There are no grades or shades of uniqueness: a person or a thing is unique, or it is not.
And I’m equally fed up with hearing something described as the “ultimate” book, music CD, or hair preparation.
“Ultimate” does not mean “latest” or “best”.
It means “last, final, utmost” – “the ultimate deterrent”,
“our ultimate destiny” – though people don’t usually say, “The ultimate bus stop on the route”!
Mind you, I wouldn’t mind an “ultimate diet book” if it really WAS going to be the last diet book ever!
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Note: I’m rather freely defining the words whose common usage I’m having a go at, cos my dictionaries are packed for a house move!
You can go into Google [other search options are available!] and type “define: unique” [without the quotes] if you don’t own a dictionary yourself or can’t be bothered to find it and look up the words – though most of the “define: ultimate” hits seem to confirm the common misuse of the word.
About Me
- Frances will do
- London, England, United Kingdom
- I'm severely visually impaired [so be gentle with my typos!] and have an inoperable injury to my lower spine: apart from that, I'm as miserable as the next person! That's not my real star-sign on my profile, but my dad died on my birthday in 2001, so I now share his
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