Grammar Police was Re: coolant overflow res.

[amalventano1@home.com (Allyn)]

A roc with good stock ground wiring is very unique.
A roc with no air bubbles somewhere in its coolant system is very unique.
My Rieger is VERY unique.
Heh
Al

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Cheapass Ron" <rapieper@yahoo.com>
To: "Kevin Collins" <kcollins1@socal.rr.com>
Cc: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 4:12 PM
Subject: RE: Grammar Police was Re: coolant overflow res.


> --- Kevin Collins <kcollins1@socal.rr.com> wrote:
> > 
> > By its very definition, something that is "unique" is just that
> > - it can't be "very unique" (a VERY abused term in the media,
> > who should know better), "relatively unique", etc. If something
> > is unique, it's one of a kind, period.
> 
> 
> Bzzzzzzztt!  Wrong.
> 
> The word unique can be used with adjectives to determine a degree of
> uniqueness.  Same with similar.  Different, though, than perfect, which
> cannot be modified.
> 
> This from Merriam-Websters, used without permission (if you're bored
> you can skip to the last few sentences):
> 
> 1 : being the only one : SOLE <his unique concern was his own comfort>
> <I can't walk away with a unique copy. Suppose I lost it? -- Kingsley
> Amis> <the unique factorization of a number into prime factors>
> 2 a : being without a like or equal : UNEQUALED <could stare at the
> flames, each one new, violent, unique -- Robert Coover> b :
> distinctively characteristic : PECULIAR 1 <this is not a condition
> unique to California -- Ronald Reagan>
> 
> Many commentators have objected to the comparison or modification (as
> by somewhat or very) of unique; the statement that a thing is either
> unique or it is not has often been repeated by them. Objections are
> based chiefly on the assumption that unique has but a single absolute
> sense, an assumption contradicted by information readily available in a
> dictionary. Unique dates back to the 17th century but was little used
> until the end of the 18th when, according to the Oxford English
> Dictionary, it was reacquired from French. H. J. Todd entered it as a
> foreign word in his edition (1818) of Johnson's Dictionary,
> characterizing it as "affected and useless." Around the middle of the
> 19th century it ceased to be considered foreign and came into
> considerable popular use. With popular use came a broadening of
> application beyond the original two meanings (here numbered 1 and 2a).
> In modern use both comparison and modification are widespread and
> standard but are confined to the extended senses 2b and 3. When sense 1
> or sense 2a is intended, unique is used without qualifying modifiers.  
> ----------
> 8P
> 
> =====
> Cheapass Ron
> "Victor" '87 16V Scirocco
> "Teufelhasen" '93 Cabby <-For sale
> 
> If it ain't foggy, TURN OFF YOUR FOG LIGHTS.
> 
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