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'Very' unique

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  • 01-03-2015 7:13pm
    #1
    degsie
    Registered Users Posts: 8,748 ✭✭✭


    So is the 'very' in 'very unique' incorrect? I always thought so.


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    #2
    catallus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,106 ✭✭✭catallus


    Context?


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    #3
    degsie
    Registered Users Posts: 8,748 ✭✭✭degsie


    catallus wrote: »
    Context?
    'The commentator said that Johnny Sexton's style was very unique'


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    #4
    catallus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,106 ✭✭✭catallus


    I can live with that.


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    #5
    my3cents
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,764 ✭✭✭my3cents


    If something is unique then its unique it can't be more unique so can't be very unique.

    Very unique is imo a tautology.


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    #6
    degsie
    Registered Users Posts: 8,748 ✭✭✭degsie


    my3cents wrote: »
    If something is unique then its unique it can't be more unique so can't be very unique.

    Very unique is imo a tautology.

    That's my interpretation also.


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    #7
    MathsManiac
    Registered Users Posts: 1,595 ✭✭✭MathsManiac


    There's very only one of it!

    Traditionalists will argue that "unique" is an absolute adjective and therefore not amenable to being modified; in particular, it cannot or should not be intensified by the word "very".

    In this meaning of the word, a thing is either unique or it is not, just like something is either "dead" or it is not. And just as it is not sensible to say "a bit dead", "very dead" (unless one is deliberately breaking the rules for linguistic effect), so it does not make sense to say "rather unique" or "very unique".

    However, it has to be recognised that there is a long history of also using the word as a synonym for "highly unusual" or "unlike anything else", and that this usage has become more common. In this sense, since it could be considered that something can be "very unlike anything else", one could therefore say "very unique". I don't particularly like it, and I would recommend avoiding it, but I think the usage has reached the stage that it is hard to be too dogmatic about it any more.

    If his kicking style is unique, then there is no one else on the planet who has the same style. If this is true, then it seems to me that it is a sufficiently impressive fact, and I'm not sure what the word "very" brings to the party. If you want to say that his style is very unusual, or very different from that of other top-class kickers, then why not just say that, and thereby avoid participation in the mass appropriation of this useful word? However, one suspects one is swimming against the tide here.


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