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To unique or not to unique
5

To unique or not to unique

To unique or not to unique

(OP)
u-nique (yoo nek') adj- 1  alone of its kind; different from all others: 2    odd; rare; unusual; singular:

And yet how many of you as I have before I was sensitized to the true definition of unique, misused it as in one or more of the following examples?:

very unique
somewhat unique
kinda unique
sorta unique

This ought to be interesting to see how some people are going to try and squirm out of the true meaning of this unique word.  Therefore I am officially making a discliamer here and now and forwith redundantly to boot that I ain't buing it.  That is unless you can somehow really convince me that unique is not.

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: To unique or not to unique

Why?  Definition 2 would fit every one:

very odd
somewhat odd
kinda odd
sorta odd

TTFN

RE: To unique or not to unique

(OP)
IR stuff,
Not in my book.  It is either odd or it is not.  It is either unique or it is not.  Modifiers for these words are superfluous or diminishing.  These words stand on their own merit.  Odd as used in defining unique fits best the first of six definitions given in my dictionary for odd the first being: unusual or strange; peculiar.

Your fingerprints are not kinda unique or very unique they are simply unique but only part of what makes you unique as an individual.  You are singular among all inividuals.  not only that, but you are fearfully and wonderfully made.  Your fingerpringts might also be odd as compared to most fingerprints but they are still unique or one of a kind and different from all others to be redundant.

As a friend of mine likes to facitiously say, "why use one word when many will do?"

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: To unique or not to unique

I brought this up using the word pretty as an example. (in another thread. I was resoundingly defeated. unique might be a better example. also fitting this is the word many. How can many be qualified?

Another is the phrase "Virtually Spotless" Something is either spotless or not. there is no in between.

nick

RE: To unique or not to unique

"Virtually Spotless" could easily mean that it is spotless in the virtual world.  That virtual world inhabited by marketers and salespeople.

Here in the real world however, I completely agree.  It is either spotless or it's not.

Virtual != Almost

RE: To unique or not to unique

Tautology is the description you're looking for,  I only know because my Father-in-law takes particular exception to this type of grammatical transgression!

Grammar in engineering has ben a subject of some debate recently, as a colleague has taken to correcting all of the errors in our grammar, having learnt english as a foreign language....

RE: To unique or not to unique

This thread is taking me back to the cartoon, The Tick, with his claim of 'nigh immortality'.  It stands to reason that we are all nearly immortal.  There is just one fatal flaw....  (couldn't resist, sorry).

RE: To unique or not to unique

Actually, Tick's claim is that he is nigh invulnerable.

There are two types of people in the world: the kind that believe that people can be categorized into one of two groups and the kind that don't.
http://www.EsoxRepublic.com

RE: To unique or not to unique

Drat!  Believe me, I'm not questioning your authority.  Just goes to show the nigh sobriety I tended to reside within while attending school.


RE: To unique or not to unique

Is this a bit similar to 'slightly pregnant'?

Good Luck
johnwm

RE: To unique or not to unique

2
Hmm.... unique.  As in :

How do you catch a unique bunny rabbit?
Unique up on him!

How you you catch a tame bunny rabbit?
the tame way!

RE: To unique or not to unique

(OP)
johnwm,
You got me there.

Is this a bit similar to 'slightly pregnant'?  

I must admit that if this is possible then it is also possible to be slightly unigue.

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: To unique or not to unique

How about a color?  If something is red, can it only be one red?  It ain't blue or green, it's RED.  It's either red or not-red eh?  I think not.  But it can be light red, dark red, almost red, etc.

Part of our problem as a society is that we don't have room for grey.  A great example is "you are either with us or against us".  BS !!!  I think there is room for modifiers to unique.

RE: To unique or not to unique

Well, *I* wasn't gonna revive this thread, but since you gone and done it...

Since when are "odd" and "strange" not qualifiable??  

The argument about whether or not "unique" can be qualfied boils down to whether one accepts definition #2 or only the stricter #1.

Hg

RE: To unique or not to unique

From what I've gathered from dictionaries, in modern informal English usage a less absolute sense for unique has emerged, although, as we have seen, this use attracts criticism.

The intensifying adverbs, almost, nearly or quite are less criticised when used with unique on the grounds that no sense of degree is involved.

I think HgTX is right when saying that all depends on the meanings attached to unique, as mentioned by metman:

1. Unparalleled, being without an equal or equivalent.
2. (Informal) outstanding, remarkable.
3. The only one of its kind; sole.
4. Unusual.

RE: To unique or not to unique

...or - does it involve the subject of the word unique...

Now being pregnant is an all or nothing subject.

But a rare species that is observed in the wild - well, it could be a unique event, but not the only event of its kind.  So a range of unique-ness, whether quality or quantity, is possible with some things, while not with others.

RE: To unique or not to unique

Meaning something that is the only one of its species is less unique than something that is the only one of its genus?

I'm kind of in the "either it or it isn't" camp, but I could see how something one-of-a-kind that isn't like any other kinds either could be more unique than something one-of-a-kind that has some close cousins--there is less threat to its uniqueness.  An original oil painting is unique.  An original oil painting executed with the artist's own hair could be considered rather more unique, because more characteristics would need to be duplicated to make it non-unique, or because one might lump together all ordinary oil paintings and not consider uniqueness within that class.

Hg

RE: To unique or not to unique

The subject wouldn't be the unique-ness of the particular critter in the wild...but the observation of that critter....the event of seeing the animal, not the animal itself.

RE: To unique or not to unique

Hg - check it out - Thread769-111549

RE: To unique or not to unique

Heh.

RE: To unique or not to unique

IFRs says: "I think there is room for modifiers to unique."

We already have a lot of words for things that are "almost unique," such as "rare," "unusual," and so forth.  There's nothing wrong with a word having a very specific meaning.  We don't have to apply political correctness to it; to do so allows the application of fuzzy definitions to every word we use, and then no one will have any idea what anyone else is talking about.

No standards I've ever read on English usage ever condoned modifying the word "unique."  Why do we need to now?  Why is the world becoming so afraid of standards?  Without standards, against what will we measure anything?

RE: To unique or not to unique

Its all a question of degree:  

A young engineer was setting out some levels and he painstakingly adjusted the chainman's mark up and down for several minutes until satisfied.  " Near enough" he called to the cahinman  to indicate that he could move on to the next point.  

"Hold on" said his site supervisor.  "Is it right or is it wrong?  On my site there's no such thing as "Near enough"".  The youngster was unnerved and sent his chainman back to verify once more, and then diffidently offered it to the senior man for his inspection.  "I believe its right , sir" said he.

The supervisor looked through the level and gave one brief comment before going back to his warm office:  "Yup;  near enough".

John.

If I haven't left it better than I found it, I haven't tried hard enough.

RE: To unique or not to unique

Same problem with 'pretty near exactly', 'almost exactly' and similar nasties. The trouble is that engineers know that 'exact' doesn't exist. You can't drive at exactly 70 mph or cut a length of steel to exactly 100mm or adjust the central heating to exactly 21 degrees. We intuitively apply a tolerance so that 'exact' means different things to different people in different circumstances.

But we use them colloquially without thinking about them and everyone knows what we mean. What offends me is to see them in the written word, or in a formal environment such as a presentation.

John

RE: To unique or not to unique

What's the matter with "almost exactly"?  It can't be "slightly exactly", but there's nothing wrong with describing the degree to which something approaches an ideal.

The fact that "almost" is not quantifiable is a different issue.

Hg

RE: To unique or not to unique

Almost and near enough, are these terms like a near miss??  What a second... isn't a near miss actually a hit??

RE: To unique or not to unique

(OP)
"A miss is a good as a mile."  This is what Sanford's mentor said when Sanford "almost" had a coniption as the milling machine in power-feed-mode accomplished a near miss for a crash with the mentor's back to the machine.  BTW Sanford is the fiend who put me onto this wierd track of sensitization to the so-called misuse of the word unique and now right or wrong I cannot make myself color the word unique into grayness.

Sanford also says there is no such thing as a point-in-time as politicians are want to proclaim since time is a continuum.  Drat his hide.  Now every time I am tempted to use that expression, I find myself struggling to find an alternate phrase.

Bring back the hp 28S,
Leonard


RE: To unique or not to unique

What, there's no points along a continuum?  What are whole numbers then?

Hg

RE: To unique or not to unique

(OP)
Hmmm, I get your point Mercury in Texas.  High noon would be a point in time with a whole number, ad infinitum.  I stand corrected.


RE: To unique or not to unique

It seems to me that the word 'high' in 'high noon' is superfluous.  Either it's noon, or it isn't?

RE: To unique or not to unique

5 to noon is near enough for practical purposes (to go for lunch!)
What shocks me more than different shades of unique is:
ideal, more ideal, most ideal
optimum, more optimum, most optimum
It's such an inflation...

RE: To unique or not to unique

Perhaps 5 to noon would be 'nigh noon'?

RE: To unique or not to unique

Doesn't the term "high noon" come from the gun-totting Old West of America (mid 1800's), where you would call out an opponent and have a pistol duel?  Not many had time pieces back then.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: To unique or not to unique

High noon can be a tautology if you're referring to 12:00, but high noon can also refer to the acme of something.  So is it possible that the high noon of a day could be interpreted as the high point of the day, that being when the Sun is highest in the sky?

Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

RE: To unique or not to unique

(OP)
I guess high noon is sort of like when my friend said he was going a fast 55mph in his go-cart.  Which brings us "full circle" or back to the original point, to be redundant.  It is either unique or not, 12:00 noon or not, 55mph or not.


RE: To unique or not to unique

2 + 2 = 3, for particularly large values of 3.  Or particularly small values of 2.

Hg

RE: To unique or not to unique

So if 2+2 equaled 4 exactly, that would be rather unique!

RE: To unique or not to unique

(OP)
Or if your a Brit, it could be raw-ther'.


RE: To unique or not to unique

High noon was lunch time BEFORE mandatory drug testing....

Remember - you are unique.... just like everyone else.

and

Two things that are not the same are different.
(this is sone of the Best engineering advice you can give a new guy)

Keep the wheels on the ground
Bob
showshine@aol.com

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