"It's very delicious"

[monsterastuckiosa]

I have been hearing this EVERYWHERE recently, especially (although perhaps unsurprisingly given the subject matter) on food podcasts.

"Extremely delicious"
"Less delicious"
"Very delicious"

It is driving me BONKERS.

Delicious is not a gradable adjective, so why are people using it as one?

We wouldn't say:

"It's very freezing" or "
"It was very enormous" or
"I'm very furious"... so why "very delicious"?

Anyone else noticed this showing up in common parlance or is it just me?

<quietly bangs head on wall>

It's always been a fairly common mistake among children when they're hardwiring language. I've not really noticed it said by adults.

if it is driving you bonkers, maybe you need to reassess where you direct your energy.

Did you look to see where this was posted!??

@monsterastuckiosa

I agree with you.

let me add unique.

My pet peeve is 'it's very unique'. It's either the superlative 'unique' or it's not. 😂

"Unique" isn't a superlative, and it can be modified.

PC was created to discuss quirks and nuances of language, not to moan about bits of language we don't like.

FWIW, obviously "very delicious" and "very unique" aren't standard usage.

Back in the day we'd have had an interesting discussion about how we've noticed extreme adjectives being modified and wonder if they'll soon become standard. These days we get the "drives me mad" and there's no discussion to be had.

Would you like to add something to steer this discussion more into the realm of linguistic quirks and nuances, then?

Or did you just pop by to moan about the types of posts you don't like?

I'm very open to and interested in whatever potential explanations there might be here, if you fancied adding something of value to the dialogue.

(Although "I've noticed extreme adjectives being modified and I wonder if they'll soon become standard" isn't actually that much more nuanced than "this has been driving me bats, has anyone else noticed it?". It might involve more syllables but it's not much more insightful)

I listen to a podcast that frequently describes an event as "very devastating"
That doesn't sound right surely?
A bit devastating?
Very devastating?
Somewhat devastating?

This reminds of some of the customer service surveys I've had to fill in recently: questions like "I was completely satisfied with the help I received", and answer choices between 1 (not at all) and 5 (entirely). I know what they're after, but it still bugs me the way it's written - logically, as soon as you are not completely satisfied, that should be an answer of 1, as you are 'not at all completely satisfied'. You can't really grade all-or-nothing adjectives like 'completely'. (Many other similar examples; this might not be the best one , but I've had similar).

My favourite similar one was a TV presenter asking “and it can be fatal, can’t it?”, to which the interviewee replied “yes, very fatal”.

"Most delicious" seems a fairly commonplace expression, so why do you say it is not a "gradable" adjective?

Who decides which adjectives are gradable? If speakers of English are using "very delicious" then it clearly is an adjective to which a scale can apply.

I'm with @PAFMO that these are the interesting questions (at least to me).

How can ‘unique’ be modified @PAFMO?

You cannot have 'very unique' or 'quite unique'. Something is either unique or it's not.

Yes, I think that’s true @MrsMcisaCt. ‘Very delicious’ sounds wrong but ‘absolutely delicious’ sounds ok. ‘Absolutely unique’, however, still sounds wrong.

My 2 year old says very delicious and I’m afraid I say it all the time now. Along with “a little bit massive” and “a little bit very hot/cold” .

I blame Bing. I blame Bing for most things.

i think online discourse encourages/rewards hyperbole, and so there is a tendency to try to push words like delicious up a notch - like spinal Tap going to 11 because it is “one louder”.

I have no issue with “quite unique” though, perhaps just because it has been used for a long time but also I think it adds potentially useful emphasis to the uniqueness by drawing additional attention to the word.

You're right. I wouldn't say 'very furious'. I'm more likely to say 'fucking furious'.

This doesn't bother me at all tbh. It's not as if 'delicious' is an absolute, like 'unique'. If you can say 'really delicious' or 'absolutely delicious', then why not 'very delicious'? It's illogical. It may be a rule, but language changes. Thinking about it, I might not say 'That's very delicious', but I might well say 'I had a very delicious cake today'.

If you prepare something you already used "pre". Don't use it again.

Ooh, I remember Bing the butterfly murderer.

Bing is a butterfly murdering bastard indeed. But I have realised that I now talk like him rather a lot of the time. Which isn’t quite so appropriate in the office 🙈

I always found the first page of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ amusing because he says something about his father ‘who was very ancient’. It seemed hyperbolic for a person to be ancient, let alone ‘very ancient’.